US hostage-taker killed by police after standoff

Police have killed a man after he shot and injured two hostages at a bank in the US state of Louisiana, an official said today.

Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, 20, was fatally shot around midnight, ending a 12-hour standoff, said Louisiana State Police spokesman Albert Paxton.

Two of Ahmed's three hostages, a man and a woman, were in critical condition after being shot, he said. The spokesman could not immediately confirm reports that one of the hostages had died.

The third hostage -- a woman -- was allowed to leave the bank in the rural town of St Joseph yesterday evening.
 

Ahmed, who was from California, was mentally ill and known to police, Paxton said.

He added the hostage-taking was planned and never intended as a bank robbery.