HONG KONG — Mourning melded into anger in Hong Kong as the full impact of the deaths, in Manila, of eight local residents, struck home to people of the city.

The victims died during a 12-hour standoff, in which a disgraced former Filipino police officer took the passengers hostage, aboard a bus parked on a major Manila thoroughfare.

Flags in Hong Kong flew at half-mast Tuesday. Moments of silence were observed around the city. The city's chief executive, lawmakers and police experts stepped forward to voice disappointment, even disgust over the way Manila police handled the siege, finally allowing it to spin out of control.

"We made mistakes," Manila police commander Leocadio Santiago said. "We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed, and we are now going to investigate this," he said.

The gunman, 55-year-old former Manila police senior inspector Rolando Mendoza, representing himself as a police officer, boarded the Hong Thai tour bus which was carrying 20 Hong Kong residents, a Hong Kong tour guide and two Philipline tour employees Monday.

Mendoza, fired over robbery and corruption claims, was finally killed by Philippine police after chaotic scenes among the security forces outside the tour bus. But by the time the standoff ended, eight Hong Kong tourists had been killed.

Questions are being raised as to why police failed to shoot Mendoza at times when he could clearly be seen standing in the door well of the tour bus earlier in the day.

"We are totally furious. This is the feeling of the Hong Kong people and I hope you can express our anger to your government," Liberal Party lawmaker Vincent Fang told Filipino Consul General in Hong Kong, Claro Cristobal during a protest outside the Admiralty office of the Philippines Consulate Tuesday.

Roughly two dozen Liberal Party members protested outside the consulate condemning the way Manila police handled the crisis.

Earlier Chief Executive Donald Tsang voiced his disappointment over the handling of the siege, adding the primary concern now was the welfare and repatriation of the hostages.

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines condemned the hijacking and its outcome, calling the debacle an atrocity.

"The Chinese government strongly condemns the atrocity by the hostage taker, expresses grave condolences to the victimised Hong Kong compatriots and conveys profound sympathy to the bereaved families," the Chinese embassy said.

Filipino President Benigno Aquino said two inquiries will be mounted into the way the police handled the crisis. He did not provide a timeline.

He added that he believed the situation was poorly handled and promised to send a delegation to Hong Kong to explain the police action.

Former Hong Kong Police Senior Superintendent Stephen Vickers said, "the team that was asked to do the job clearly didn't have the equipment for assaulting the bus high off the ground with thickened windows and it's not as simple as you think."

Vickers, now CEO of International Risk, noted that the squad lacked standard equipment like explosive entry, stun grenades, thermal imagery and other basic equipment, adding that it was curious why the police did not ready themselves for a hard response during the 12-hour standoff, he said.

"Their sledgehammers looked like the type you buy at a store," he said.

Filipino Interior Department Secretary Jesse Robredo blamed media coverage for the tactical failure by police. He told Philippine radio news, television coverage of the incident, which was capable of being viewed on the television installed on board the bus, eliminated any element of surprise when police decided to storm the bus.

Assistant professor John Harrison, a homeland security analyst at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP that there should have been a media blackout to deny the hijacker feedback on what was going on around him.

"The fact that there was essentially live video was mistake number one," he said.