An 18-year-old Chinese student has been rescued by Vancouver police teams and arrests were made in three dramatic takedowns in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday morning.
Investigators say the student had been kidnapped from his home in the West End of Vancouver on Sunday and a large ransom demand had been made to his family in China.
Vancouver's deputy police chief, Doug Lepard, said at a press conference that residences in Burnaby had been identified as being associated with the kidnapping and several suspects were placed under 24-hour surveillance after police were contacted.
"The information we got from his parent is that he was here studying. It appears to be a targeted kidnapping, [the kidnappers] had a certain amount of information," said Lepard.
Around 5:00 a.m. Thursday a vehicle was seen leaving the Metrotown area of Burnaby, B.C., carrying three men including one police described as a possible suspect.
"Several hours later, members of the Vancouver Police Department's Emergency Response Team and Strike Force swooped on several vehicles and the hostage was rescued uninjured," said Lepard.
The rescue took place around 7:30 a.m. as the victim was possibly in the process of being moved, he said.
Five suspects are now in custody.
Reports of shots fired in the area were the result of "flash-bang" grenades being used during the rescue by Emergency Response Team members, which give off a loud noise, he added.
The kidnapping was not made public by police until after Thursday's rescue.
The arrests were made in East Vancouver at Fraser and Kingsway -- where the victim was rescued, in an underground lot on Kingsway, and at Main and South East Marine Drive in Vancouver. There were no injuries.
Lepard said the team that carried out the rescue was the same team which rescued 23-year-old Vancouverite Graham McMynn, who was kidnapped in 2006.
