Around 30 people have been held hostage by an armed man at the Greenhills V-Mall in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on March 2.

Outside the shopping mall (Photo: Straitstimes)

Local armed police are still in a standoff with the abductor, who was reported to be an ex-security guard at the mall, local media reported.

The hostages are being held in the mall's administrative offices and at least one person was shot. The victim has been brought to hospital and is in stable condition.

Manila was the site of a bloody hostage taking that ended in the deaths of eight tourists from Hong Kong in 2010, during which an ex-police officer, armed with an M-16 assault rifle, hijacked a bus near Rizal Park, a popular tourist destination just a few blocks from police headquarters, in a bid to get his job back.

(Source: VNA)