MANILA, Philippines ? Four suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout with the police in Valenzuela City Tuesday.

Supt. Rainier Idio, Valenzuela police chief, told the Inquirer that the four men, who remained unidentified at press time, were believed to be members of the Villaver kidnap-for-ransom gang.

Tuesday?s operation was conducted jointly by the Valenzuela police, the National Capital Region-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (NCR-CIDU) and the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (Pacer).

According to Idio, they received information that members of the kidnap gang were planning to abduct a person in the city.

At around 2 a.m., the joint police team spotted the suspects on board a black Toyota Revo with plate number XPC 483 near the Malinta exit.

Members of the NCR-CIDU and Pacer followed the vehicle while the Valenzuela policemen set up a checkpoint in Barangay Canumay to intercept the suspects.

The men on board the Revo, however, noticed that they were being followed and opened fire on the policemen.

The suspects were cornered on Ignacio Street at around 2:30 a.m. Three of them died on the spot while the fourth one was taken to the Valenzuela General Hospital where he died while receiving treatment.

Two others managed to escape.

Found inside the Revo were a machinegun, a 9 mm pistol, a caliber .38 revolver, a shotgun and ammunition.

Idio said the group was behind a robbery-holdup incident in Marikina City last year.