A man has been arrested in Shanghai for the shooting deaths of six people, Xinhua reports:
The 62-year-old suspect, a man surnamed Fan, beat a colleague surnamed Zhang to death at 5 p.m. Saturday at a chemical factory in the city’s Baoshan District, the government said.
The fatal beating was allegedly triggered by a financial dispute between Fan and Zhang.
He then took a hunting rifle hidden in his dormitory and asked a driver to drive him to a different district. He gunned down the driver on the way and then drove the vehicle back.
He then killed a guard at the gate of a nearby military barracks and took the soldier’s gun. After returning to the plant, he killed another three people with his rifle. [Source]
Shootings are rare in China, and this incident led to calls for a crackdown on firearms and violent crime, the New York Times reports:
The episode was rare and alarming enough to prompt the national Ministry of Public Security to convene an emergency video meeting and demand a nationwide check on the availability of firearms. China is not immune to crimes of violent rage, despite the sweeping powers wielded by the police. But few civilians have permits to own firearms, and shooting rampages are rare.
Meng Jianzhu, the secretary of the Communist Party committee that runs the legal and police apparatus, and Guo Shengkun, the minister of public security, issued orders for the case to be promptly investigated and to “resolutely strike hard against violent criminal activities that seriously menace public safety, ensuring overall social stability,” the Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site. [Source]
