Hong Kong remembers killed tourists

Hong Kong observed a three-minute silence Thursday for eight tourists killed in a Manila hostage crisis on Monday. 

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Henry Tang and an aide help a mother and her children to lay a wreath on a coffin containing the body of her husband upon its arrival at Hong Kong Airport. (25/08/2010)

The bodies of the eight killed were flown back to Hong Kong on Wednesday night, the victims aged from 14 to 58.

"We can't help but ask why human nature is so ugly,” Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said at a ceremony on the city's harbour waterfront

Emotions are running high in Hong Kong over blunders by the Philippine police who tackled Monday's standoff, when a disgraced former policeman held a group of Hong Kong tourists hostage for 12 hours.

The tragedy unfolded live on television, allowing the world to watch as ill-prepared Philippine police commandos failed in attempts to storm the bus before the tourists, and the gunman, died in a hail of bullets.

Autopsies on five of the victims showed they died from gunshots mostly in the head and neck.

Philippine officials said further investigations were required to determine if the victims had been shot by the hostage-taker or by police.

Public anger over the incident is at fever pitch, with reports of reprisals on the Filipino community living in Hong Kong and hundreds of people cancelling flight bookings to Manila.

The volatile southern Philippines saw a similar attack Thursday when gunmen stormed a bus and shot dead four people in Lanao del Sur province, a flashpoint for Muslim separatists.