Philippine police kill 6 kidnappers, rescue Indian

Heavily armed police, backed by military intelligence agents, raided the kidnappers' hide-out in Calumpit township in Bulacan province north of Manila after midnight, sparking a brief clash in which three suspected abductors were killed, police Senior Supt. Isagani Nerez said.

They rescued unharmed Avtar Singh, 52, who was tied and blindfolded in a room.

Three other suspected kidnappers left the gang's hide-out two hours before the raid and were killed in a shootout with police in Calumpit, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Manila, Nerez said.

Singh, who has a money-lending company, was kidnapped Friday in Manila's suburban Quezon city by four gunmen, who took his van. The kidnappers later called his wife and demanded a large ransom which was reduced after negotiations, Nerez said.

After the payoff along a Calumpit road Saturday, police commandos tailed the kidnappers and discovered their hide-out, he said. Police recovered the 75,000-peso ($1,630) ransom, three pistols and a shotgun from the hide-out, police said.

At least 47 suspected kidnappers have now been killed by authorities this year. About 60 others have been arrested in a government crackdown launched in response to a spike in kidnappings for ransom.