Uttar Pradesh captor shot dead, children rescued captor shot dead, children rescued; mob kills captor's wife

It took 10 hours for police to rescue 23 children and shoot and kill the armed youth who took them hostage at a village in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad district, about 250 kilometres from Lucknow.

The wife of the captor, who, according to the children tried to persuade him to free the hostages, was allegedly attacked and killed by a mob in the presence of police.

According to sources, the police entered the captor's house by breaking the rear wall late Thursday night. The captor Subhash Batham opened fire at the cops and was killed in retaliatory firing from the police officers.

Sources said that all the children, who were kept in a small room, were rescued unharmed. A large quantity of ammunition, including bombs, was recovered from the house.

Angry villagers caught hold of Batham's wife and thrashed her with sticks and lathis, sources said. She was rushed to the hospital but was declared brought dead. The children said that she tried her best to persuade the captor to free them.

Sources said that the police remained mute spectators and did not attempt to rescue the woman.

The youth had lured the children to his house at Karathia village in the district on the pretext of celebrating his one-year-old daughter's birthday. He then fired shots and threw a grenade at the police, who tried to barge into the home to rescue the children.