CU telephone PAN to policeman answers ring; GV and PAN police car drives to hideout (2 shots); CU policeman watches hideout; GV and ZOOM hideout; MV "criminals" fire pistols out of hideout window; GV TRAVELLING policemen behind shields; MV police chief uses loud hailer to talk to "criminals" (3 shots); GV policemen behind shields; GV police shelter behind car door; GV policewoman carries "ransom" in bag to hideout; MV policeman watches through binoculars; GV two female hostages released from hideout; GV police hold conference (2 shots); GV police move into position for rush; CU "criminal" fires gun; GV police storm hideout, arrest criminals and into cars (3 shots)




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Background: To try to rescue hostages held by terrorists is a task that may confront police authorities anywhere in the world these days, and in Japan many local police forces are studying techniques that have proved useful in the past and which may succeed in the future. At the Police School in Wakayama Prefecture in south-western Japan recently, members of the prefecture riot police staged a rescue with police men and women acting the parts of the terrorists and their victims. More than 170 members of the force took part in the "rescue" during which three "terrorists" have taken five "hostages" -- two women and three men -- to their "hideout": a shack in the Police School grounds. The police purchase the freedom of the women hostages with a ransom of fifty million yen (about 200,000 US dollars) and then storm the "hideout", rescuing the "hostages" and capturing the "terrorists". Senior police officers believe that exercises of this kind can give experience that may be valuable when dealing with real criminals.