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Police shoot dead car theft suspect in S China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-28 22:56

SHENZHEN - Police shot and killed an alleged car thief during a chase in Shenzhen in China's southern Guangdong Province, said police on Friday.

Police from the Longgang branch of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau received a phone call at 8:38 p.m. Thursday, which said that a man who was suspected of having stolen a car was spotted on the run with false number plates.

Police raced to the scene and found a car whose plates did not comply with its registration.

As police questioned a man at the scene, he took out a knife to attack them.  He failed, and turned and quickened steps to run away. Seeing he continued to resist arrest with the knife, the police shot warning shots. After this failed to stop the man, the police shot and killed him and seized tools including a spanner and a screwdriver.

Preliminary investigation showed that the suspect was surnamed Hu, 39, from Chongqing Municipality and jobless.

He had the record of taking drugs and theft, and had been detained several times by the Longgang branch. The car found at the scene, a Geely, was stolen on November 14.

Prosecutors who later arrived at the scene said acts of the police are legal and necessary.

Further investigation is underway.

Hu is the second suspect killed by police in Shenzhen this month. On November 12, police shot dead an alleged motorcycle thief who wounded two civilian police assistants.