A hostage taker holding his girlfriend at knife point was shot dead by police in Shanghai on Friday.

At 3:30 p.m., Shanghai police fired at a man surnamed Shen who had lost control and was trying to kill the woman, said a police spokesman with the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

Shen, with a knife in hand, took his girlfriend hostage inside a house with the door and windows shut at Tianma Town, Songjiang District, at 7 a.m. Police and Shen's relatives tried to persuade him not to hurt the woman for more than eight hours.

The hostage was slightly wounded on the back.

An initial investigation found Shen, a drug addict, had quarreled with his girlfriend before he took her hostage.

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2008)