Gunmen in Haiti Free Children for Ransom; American Also Abducted

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Gunmen hijacked a school bus carrying about a dozen children Thursday and released them unharmed after receiving a small ransom, police said.

A U.S. missionary also was abducted while driving outside this capital city, police said.

The bus was taking the children, ages 5 to 17, to school when several armed men stopped it, Police Commissioner Francois Henry Doussous said.

He said the men boarded the bus and drove west from Port-au-Prince. Doussous said the captors contacted the children’s families and demanded $50,000 for their release.

Another official said the amount paid was $4,000.

Also Thursday, gunmen shot and kidnapped U.S. missionary Phillip Snyder north of the capital, Doussous said.

Snyder, 48, is the president of Glow Ministries International, based in Zeeland, Mich.

Snyder’s wife, Amber, 38, said in a telephone interview from Zeeland that she had received a brief telephone call from her husband Thursday afternoon.

“He sounded strained,” she said. “He told me he wasn’t being hurt.”

She said that one of the couple’s sons, who lives in Haiti, was acting as a negotiator with the kidnappers.

Doussous said police did not think the kidnappings were related. Police had spoken with Snyder’s kidnappers by phone, and they wanted $300,000, Doussous said.