A vengeful ex-police captain has been shot dead by Philippine police after he killed eight Hong Kong tourists held hostage on a bus in Manila.

The bus was stormed on Monday night, Manila time, after 11-hour negotiations with the 55-year-old Rolando Mendoza came to a standstill, Al Jazeera reported. The other tourist hostages were hospitalised, with two of them in critical condition, said officials.

"The hostage-taker was killed. He chose to shoot it out with our men," Senior Superintendent Nelson Yabut said. "On our first assault, Captain Mendoza was sprawled in the middle of the aisle and shot one of our operatives. On our second assault we killed him."

Mr Mendoza had seized the bus in an effort to regain his job, after being dismissed from the police force in 2008 over corruption allegations. Dressed in camouflage and armed with an M16 rifle and a jungle knife, he had hitched a ride with the busload of tourists - a total of 22 Hong Kong tourists and three Filipinos - as it visited Manila’s historic sites, before declaring that he was taking the group hostage.

During police negotiations, nine people had been released, including three children and two Filipinos. The remaining Filipino, the bus driver, managed to escape when Mr Mendoza began shooting at the hostages by nightfall.

During the standoff, negotiators had been given a list of demands by Mr Mendoza, which included food for the remaining passengers on the bus and fuel to continue the air-conditioning.

Later, police encircled the bus, smashed its windows, and fired at it after hearing shots from within, but were held at bay by Mr Mendoza’s gunfire. The crisis came to an end when tear gas was lobbed into the bus and a police sniper fired a fatalistic headshot.

Some of the surviving hostages have criticised the slow response of authorities. One woman, who identified herself as Mrs Leung, said, “There were so many people on the bus - no one came to our rescue. Why? … We were in fear for so many hours. I find it really cruel."

However, the response from authorities was defended by the Philippine president, Benigno Aquino III, who said they had initially believed Mr Mendoza would surrender.

"How can I be satisfied when there were people who died?" he said, before noting the situation deteriorated rapidly from the time the hostage-taker initially showed willingness to release his hostages.

Gregory Mendoza, the brother of the hostage-taker, explained Rolando’s actions as an effort to regain the pension that had been disallowed when he was dismissed from the police force.

"He is not in the state of his mind, he is not the same Captain Mendoza as before … According to him, he lost his life because of the dismissal," he said.

Gregory Mendoza, himself a policeman, was arrested later on Monday for alleged obstruction of justice, which included approaching the bus to speak with his brother whilst carrying a weapon.

"They were the ones who failed in the negotiations, then they blame the outcome on me," he said.

Hong Kong blacklists travel to the Philippines

In response to the massacre in Manila, in which 22 Hong Kong tourists had been taken prisoner and eight of them murdered, the Hong Kong government has issued a black travel alert to the Philippines, urging local residents to avoid all travel to the country.

The alert means all outbound tour groups to the Philippines will be cancelled from tomorrow, said Executive Director of the Travel Industry Council, Joseph Tung.