Police overpowered the attackers as they tried to escape after a six-hour standoff.
Authorities said they managed to talk the attackers out of the building after giving them $30,000 in cash and a van. When the men got into the vehicle with four children, security forces closed the gate to the school compound and
smashed the van's windows, yanking the men from the vehicle.
Furious and sometimes weeping parents waiting outside the school took their revenge, bloodying three of the four hostage-takers and beating at least one unconscious before police pulled them away.
The attackers, motivated by a desire for money, barged into the school at about 9:30 a.m. and herded a teacher and almost 30 nursery school-aged children into a classroom in one of the school's two buildings.
Scores of other children -- from as many as 15 countries including the United States -- managed to hide or scramble from the grounds. US Embassy spokesman said some American children were among the hostages but survived unharmed.
Parents rushed to the school and waited with soldiers and police, many sitting on the ground in any shade they could find against the heat of the day as authorities negotiated with the attackers.
As the hours stretched on, the occasional sound of captive children crying could be heard from inside the school grounds beyond a small empty playground.
The attack paralyzed much of the town. Hundreds of onlookers waited on the muddy street in front of the school. Authorities brought in armored cars and a fire engine.
"The children (in the crowd) were very scared, and the parents were, of course, crying," said Belgian doctor Georges Dallemagne, who lives in Siam Reap. "Everybody was completely shocked. It was a really emotional day, and for the parents, it was very, very bad."
The attackers demanded money, weapons and a vehicle, and Cambodian officials partially complied, delivering $30,000 and a van.
The attackers got in the van along with four children, but as they prepared to drive off, security forces closed the school gate and stormed the vehicle, dragging the men out, military police officer Prak Chanthoeun said.
Some parents charged the hostage takers.
"Those parents beat and kicked those men because they were very outraged by them. We could barely control the angry crowd," he said. "One foreigner threw several hard kicks to the head of one of those men."
Other parents were seen grabbing their children and dashing away from the school yard.
The gang's leader, identified as Khum, later told police he had shot the Canadian toddler in the head, Chanthoeun said. "This man admitted he shot the child because the child was crying a lot," he said.
Denis Richer, a Frenchman who teaches at another school in the town, identified the dead boy as Michaelka Maxyme and said he tried to comfort the father. "I asked him, 'what can I do now?' He was completely lost," Richer said.
He said the family arrived in Siem Reap about two months ago so the father could take a management position at the Hotel de la Paix, due to open next month. Family members could not immediately be contacted.
Other officials said earlier the boy was shot because officials did not fulfill all the hostage takers' demands, and that they had threatened to shoot others. After they were taken into custody, police discovered they only had one gun among them, Chanthoeun said.
The hostage-takers came from a district near the capital, Phnom Penh, to work in Siem Reap. They told police they were penniless and "decided to do that to the foreign children because they believed their families are rich," said Chanthoeun, who described them as small town gangsters.
Shirtless and shoeless, with faces bloodied and hands cuffed behind their backs, three of the suspects were seen afterward at the district police station. Two were on gurneys waiting for medical attention, while a third sat with his head slumped in a chair being interrogated.
The affair was a rare disturbance to the tranquillity that usually prevails in Siem Reap, Cambodia's main tourist town because it is a gateway to the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex, 140 miles north of Phnom Penh.
David Gainer, US Embassy spokesman in the capital Phnom Penh, said children of American citizens were also among the hostages. He did not give the number but said they survived the ordeal unharmed.
"We regret the loss of life," Gainer said, adding that the United States extends its sympathy to the families of the victims.
Parents of many children at the Siem Reap International School are expatriates serving in the tourism sector, including a string of upmarket hotels catering to wealthy travelers.
Violence against foreigners "doesn't happen here often" said Richer, a 12-year resident whose daughter attended the international school last year. "Cambodia is a quiet country. We feel safe here."
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the government hopes tourism can help improve the desperate conditions. While foreigners generally go unmolested, street crime is otherwise rampant, especially in the cities. Richer praised the school staff for their skill in handling the situation, saying they showed true courage.
"The children were traumatized for sure, but the teacher was clever enough to play with them," he said. "They were playing together and having some chocolate and they were singing a little bit. So the teacher was trying to get them away from that mess."
Tan Seok Ho, 42, a Singaporean woman who runs a language school in the town and is the mother of a three-year-old taken hostage, said her son did not appear traumatized afterward and said only that the school was "broken."
"I think it was his childish way of saying there was damage done to his school," she said.
