A man was arrested by police suspected the mastermind of Thursday's hostage-taking crisis in Cambodia's northwestern city of Siem Reap, a police officer said Friday.

The man, 29-year-old Ul Samnang, was the security guard of a tourism shop from Cambodia's SK security company. Though the man was not directly involved the hostage-taking, he was said to be the mastermind of the hostage-taking incident, said the officer who asked not to be named.

Cambodian police on Thursday successfully ended the six-hour long hostage crisis in northwestern city of Siem Reap, which was uncommon in Cambodia.

Four masked men, one of them armed with gun, entered a private- run International school at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the northwestern tourism city of Siem Reap and took about 70 students as hostage. About 30 students were released later, leaving some 40 still at the hand of hostage-takers.

The four demanded 30,000 US dollars, weapons and a 12-seater vehicle for making their escape to the Cambodia-Thailand border. They also threatened to kill the children one by one if the demand did not meet.

Police then stormed into the school at about 3:00 p.m.. Police opened fire at the hostage-takers when they attempted to escape with several children, and arrested the four.

All four hostage-takers, all Cambodians in their 20s, were arrested, but a two-year-old Canadian boy was later killed by the bandits.

"The hostage incident ended now, but government needs to carry out further investigation on it," government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said on Thursday, who is also the Minister of Information."It was still not clear about the motivation and the real identity of the hostage-takers though they are all khmer," the spokesman added.

According to a eyewitness, the children were aged between two and six and were believed from more than dozen foreign countries and regions, including Australia, Japan, Canada and Chinese Taiwan. They were the children of expatriate workers living and working in Siem Reap.

Siem Reap, located more than 300 km northwestern of Phnom Penh, is home of world famous Angkor temples.

It was learned that such hostage-taking incident was uncommon in Cambodia.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday condemned the hostage-taking, calling for the government and relative authorities to strengthen the security measures in Siem Reap.

The hostage-takers were not organized by al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah, the premier said, adding that "but it is a kind of crime separate from terrorism."

Source: Xinhua