An army sergeant was arrested and his teenage hostage was freed by police and military commandos in the central city of Hue city Sunday morning after a brazen gun-point kidnapping by the heartbroken soldier.

Investigators said Minh had been disturbed after his girlfriend of one year rebuffed his proposal for marriage.

On Saturday afternoon Minh, a sergeant from Infantry Division 968 stationed at Cam Lo District in the adjacent province of Quang Tri, stole an assault riffle AK-47 and some 30 bullets from his division and traveled to Hue to meet his girlfriend, a woman who lived in Hue’s An Tay District. Police have only released her name as “H.”

Minh’s division leaders soon recorded his absence and informed his family as well as H’s.

Minh showed up at H’s Hue home brandishing the weapon but neighbors called police, who arrived shortly and tried to arrest Minh.

But the young man held them off by threatening to shoot. He then forced a motorbike-taxi driver to drive him away.

Minh told the driver to stop at Nhu Phuoc Hotel, where he saw Tran Thi Thu Trang playing with her friends outside. He took the girl hostage and threatened police again. He took Trang into the hotel at around 6:30 p.m., firing the gun at random, Trang told Tuoi Tre.

Minh fired eleven shots, police said.

Minh’s mother and his elder brother were invited from Quang Binh province to the site to convince him to release Trang, but he refused. Minh held up in a hotel room with the girl overnight.

Police and commandos finally fired tear gas into the hotel room to subdue Minh. The action worked and Trang was rescued after both her and Minh passed out under gas. Trang was then hospitalized but regained consciousness and left quickly without being discharged, said Bui Duc Phu, director of Hue Central Hospital.

Trang and her family refused subsequent requests for interviews.

Le Trung Mai, H’s father, said the family had encouraged H. to turn down the proposal because Minh had yet to complete his military service and had no stable job or income, while H. had just got a job at a hotel kitchen.

Both had families agreed to delay the marriage, Mai said.

Minh’s father, Nguyen Duc Ban, said his son must have been shocked by the rejection and couldn’t control himself.

According to Ban, Minh had only one more week of military service yet before his discharge. He said Minh had been acting normally prior to the incident.

Minh was taken into custody for three months and is now under investigation for illegally depriving the military of weapons, illegally using military weapons and “illegally arresting” Trang.

Reported by Bui Ngoc Long – Minh Phuong