Victims turn the tables on Chinatown kidnappers

And as is often the case in Chinatown, no one called the police until the drama was over.

Police said the abduction occurred in front of 47 Christie Street, in lower Manhattan, where the family of the victims operated a business making sports clothes.

An employee who saw three men force Mr Jimmy Tung, 32, and his 11-year-old brother into a van at gunpoint called the Tung family home in Manhasset and told Ms My Tung, the mother of the two victims, what had happened. The employee did not call the New York City police.

The mother did not call the police either. Instead, she called her brother, Mr James Chang, at his home in Queens, who, with three friends, jumped into his car and drove to his sister's home, a condominium development protected by guards stationed at theentrance.

Mr Chang told eight other members of the family in the house to go to the second floor when the van with the three gunmen pulled into the garage. The kidnappers, who used Mr Tung and his brother to get them past the security guard, were unaware 11 peoplewere waiting inside, said assistant chief of the Nassau County Police, Mr Mel Kenny.

As they entered the house, they were met by Mr Chang, who surprised and quickly disarmed one of the kidnappers.

Using the kidnapper's gun, Mr Chang fired several shots at the kidnapper and used it to subdue the two others while his friends tied their hands, Mr Kenny said.

Mrs Tung called for help after hearing the gunshots.

Since all the victims and the suspects spoke Chinese, Mr Kenny said that when police arrived they had to wait for a translator to determine what had happened.

The wounded kidnapper died shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital. Police said they were trying to identify him.

The two suspects arraigned were identified in court as Qiao Zheng, 17, of Manhattan, and Jian R. Chen, 21, also of Manhattan. They were being held without bail in Nassau County Jail.

Mr Kenny said the police were seeking a possible fourth suspect.

He said the abduction of the two brothers was apparently the first step in a plan to rob the Tung home.

Mr Kenny said Nassau County police had investigated several robberies at Asian homes.

''The victims usually own or operate cash-related businesses and the basic mode of operation has been the same. Armed men force their way into the home or use some other deceptive tactic to get in, then take what money they can.'' He said neither the Tungs nor Mr Chang, whom he described as a hero, knew the kidnappers. No charges were filed against Mr Chang, he said.

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