HOW IT UNFOLDED

10.30am HK tour guide calls Hong Kong office of Hong Thai Travel saying his bus has been hijacked

11am A Filipino tour guide and an elderly woman are released. Two Filipino photographers go on board in exchange

12.05pm Three children and a woman are set free

1.05pm Lunch boxes are delivered to the hijacked bus

1.20pm The gunman, wearing a short-sleeved blue uniform and carrying an assault rifle, appears and nears the door of the bus

1.25pm An elderly man is freed

2pm Three notices suggesting something will happen at 3pm are stuck on the door and a window

2.40pm A photographer is freed

3pm The gunman briefly draws open a window curtain to look out

3.12pm A police car brings fuel. A man puts fuel into the bus

3.28pm A 'MEDIA NOW' notice appears on a window

3.30pm An earlier notice, 'BIG DEAL WILL START AFTER 3 PM TODAY', is removed

4.35pm Second Filipino photographer allowed off bus

5.30pm The bus is driven forward for a short distance and then stops

7.20pm Shots inside the bus

7.30pm Bus driver flees vehicle

7.40pm Police SWAT team try to break into the bus

8.15pm Police break into back of bus but quickly withdraw

8.20pm Shots fired from bus

8.40pm Police storm bus, open back door, four hostages crawl out

8.57pm Another hostage seen leaving bus

9.10pm Police confirm three fatalities, one of them the gunman

11pm Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen confirms seven Hong Kong residents killed

12.45am Philippine President Benigno Aquino says eighth Hong Kong person dead