Malaysian police stormed a preschool today to free 30 children and four teachers held hostage by a man armed with a hammer and a machete, the Star newspaper reported.
It was not immediately known whether any of the children aged between three and six years or their teachers were hurt.
The Star reported police fired teargas into the school before storming the building in Muar, a town in the southern state of Johor which borders Singapore.
The suspect, believed to be mentally unstable, had earlier barged into the school, locked all the doors then threatened to kill the children unless police gave him a gun, the paper said.
Earlier, the official Bernama news agency reported police and a psychiatrist were negotiating with the man for the release of the children.
Reuters