A man was captured by police Monday morning after holding three women hostage for more than three hours inside a pawn shop in the southeast Chinese city of Fuzhou, police said.

A man was captured by police Monday morning after holding three women hostage for more than three hours inside a pawn shop in the southeast Chinese city of Fuzhou.

The hostage situation began at 8 a.m. when the suspect took three women hostage at knifepoint, said a senior officer with the police bureau of Fuzhou, Fujian Province.

Police captured a 22-year-old man, surnamed Yu, at 11:15 a.m. and freed the women. None of them were injured in the incident, said police.

An employee at a nearby store, who declined to be named, said the man was a security guard at the pawn shop. The three women included two clerks and a cleaner.

Fuzhou police said they were investigating Yu's motives.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2009)