8am this morning, a young man in a self-made armor entered a pre-school in Ho Chi Minh City and took two 3-year-old boys hostage at knife point. Police laid siege to the school and managed to subdue him after two and a half hours.

The arrested man is identified as Cao Quoc Huy, born in 1984. He refused to tell the police his motive.

Police found two Thai knives and a pink cell phone thought to belong to Huy.

At 8am, Huy suddenly used a knife to take two boys hostage while his classmates were out of the classroom during a break. Panic-stricken, teachers drove all kids into different classrooms and locked themselves in.

The kidnapper took the two boys to an empty room.

The 10A Pre-School is on Go Cam Dem Street in ward 10 of Tan Binh district. It has around 300 kids between the age of 3 and 5.

After being informed, nearly a hundred policemen were mobilized to the scene and surrounded the school. Worried parents also flocked there with some trying to enter the school to see if their children were safe but were prevented by the police.

At 9:30, police approached deeper and at 10:15, they succeeded to locate the room where the two boys were held. The victims were in the end rescued. One boy was in a state of shock, with injuries to his neck and nose and his left leg was covered in blood. The two were immediately taken to hospital.

At 10:30, the culprit was escorted to the police station. Police are still cordoning off the school.