Philippine police rescue Chinese student whose finger was cut off by kidnappers

Philippine police have safely recovered a Chinese schoolboy who was kidnapped by a gang who killed his driver and cut off his finger in a bid to force his parents to pay a huge ransom, officials said.

Interior secretary Jonvic Remulla said the parents rejected the ransom demand but the Chinese-led kidnappers, who included former Filipino police officers and soldiers, abandoned the 14-year-old in the middle of a busy street in metropolitan Manila when police closed in on their vehicle.

The kidnapping of the boy on February 20 after he attended classes at a British school in Manila set off alarms due to its brazenness and brutality.

Mr Remulla told reporters that the student’s family and the Chinese leader of the kidnappers were allegedly former operators of lucrative online gambling outfits, which flourished under former President Rodrigo Duterte but were ordered closed last year by his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The online gambling outfits, which operated in the Philippines, Cambodia and other south-east Asian countries, have catered to large numbers of clients in China, where gambling is prohibited.

“We know that this crime involved a Chinese against a Chinese,” Mr Remulla said, adding that the student’s family and the kidnappers communicated in Chinese via the WeChat app.

After the closure of illegal gambling outfits in the Philippines, some turned to other crimes, including kidnapping, Mr Remulla said. Officials said online cryptocurrency sites, love and investment scams remained a threat.

In a bid to pressure the student’s family to pay a ransom of 20 million dollars (£15.8 million), which was later reduced to one million dollars (£790,000), the kidnappers cut off the tip of the small finger in the victim’s right hand and sent a video of the gruesome act to his parents, Mr Remulla said.

The boy’s driver was killed and later found in an abandoned vehicle, where crucial evidence, including mobile phone numbers, was found.

The suspects apparently tried to leave the vehicle in a haste, Mr Remulla said.

The kidnappers have been identified and are being hunted, police officials said.