Beijing: A 62-year-old employee at a private chemical factory in eastern China has gunned down five people in a rare shooting incident in the country after pounding one of his colleagues to death.
The suspect, surnamed Fan, killed four of his colleagues, a taxi driver and a sentry at a local military compound in China`s largest city, Shanghai, on Friday evening.
At first Fan pounded his colleague, surnamed Zhang, to death around 5pm on Friday at the factory he worked in Shanghai`s Baoshan District, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said on the microblogging site Sina Weibo.
He then took his hunting rifle hidden in his dormitory and asked driver of an taxi to take him to another district. He gunned down the driver on the way and then drove the vehicle back to Baoshan, Hong Kong`s The South China Morning Post reported.
Fan then killed a soldier who was guarding the entrance to a nearby barrack and grabbed the soldier`s gun. He then returned to the factory and fatally shot three more people with his hunting rifle, including a manager.
Policemen patrolling the factory overpowered Fan about six hours after his killing spree started, and retrieved both guns at around 11.15pm.
Witnesses saw about 10 police vehicles parked on a street near the factory as policemen cordoned off the street. Police are still investigating the case.
Guns are hard to get hold of in China. Firearms are tightly controlled and most of the privately owned guns are illegal.
PTI
