PERUVIAN troops stormed the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima yesterday, freeing 71 hostages held by Marxist rebels, but one captive, a supreme court judge, was killed, a government congressman said.
Congressman Daniel Espichan said Judge Carlos Giusti Acuna was the only hostage killed in a brief but fierce battle between troops and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) guerrillas, who had held the building for 126 days.
President Alberto Fujimori said last night that one hostage, two soldiers and 14 rebels had been killed in the assault on the building.
Earlier, an ecstatic President Fujimori had yelled to crowds lining the streets that all the hostages were "safe and sound" despite the reports that one had died.
Correspondents at the scene said at least 60 of the 72 captives had left safely.
Masked soldiers waved assault rifles in the air, cheered, sang the national anthem and punched their fists in the air after the 40-minute operation to end Latin America's longest hostage siege.
Mr Fujimori, wearing a bulletproof jacket, arrived at the site immediately afterwards and entered the compound where he was cheered by soldiers.
Soldiers had swarmed into the building from private houses behind the diplomatic compound at, 3.20 p.m. (9.20 p.m. Irish time) and engaged the rebels in a battle, punctuated by billowing smoke, gunfire and explosions and shown live on television.
At about 4 p.m. the soldiers triumphantly pulled down the MRTA flag that had flown over the residence since it was stormed in an audacious raid during a glamorous cocktail party on December 17th last.
The freed hostages included the Peruvian Foreign Minister, Mr Francisco Tudela, and the Japanese ambassador, Mr Morihisa Aoki, as well as other senior government officials.
According to witnesses, at least five hostages were injured, four of them carried out on stretchers. Seven policemen were also injured.
An MRTA spokesman, Mr Isaac Velazco, told Reuters from Hamburg by telephone that the guerrillas would retaliate for the assault by attacking military and economic targets in Peru.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, said he had not been given any warning of the assault, but he thanked the Peruvian government for freeing the hostages, including all 24 Japanese captives.
The storming of the residence came after negotiations between the Peruvian government and rebels - mainly through a three-man guarantors committee had failed to bring a breakthrough.
Mr Fujimori faced the worst crisis of his turbulent seven years in office over the hostage seizure.
The MRTA wanted the release of jailed comrades, a demand the government had always rejected.
The Cuban-inspired MRTA is the smallest of Peru's two main rebel movements.