A villager reportedly armed with a double-barreled hunting gun was suspected of killing four people, including two police officers, in China’s northern Hebei Province yesterday, state media said, in a rare outbreak of gun violence in a nation where firearms are tightly controlled by the central government.
Citing police officials, Xinhua said that Liu Shuangrui (劉雙瑞) went on “a rampage” in Suning County’s Xishibao Village — about two hours south of Beijing — killing two “fellow villagers” and wounding three.
State television called the incident a “mass shooting.”
Liu then shot dead two police officers and wounded two, Xinhua added.
Liu was said to be trapped in his house and found dead when officers entered near dawn, it said.
The official report did not say whether Liu’s wound was self-inflicted.
News outlets published photographs of a government news release that said Liu, 55, was “bipolar.”
Gun violence is considered rare in China, as private gun ownership is restricted.
In December last year, an employee of the People’s Bank of China allegedly shot and killed two colleagues at the branch where they worked in the northeastern province of Liaoning, reportedly in a fight over money.
News reports at the time said that he was armed with a hunting rifle.
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