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Mass-murder suspect captured
Police in central China captured on Sunday a man suspected of killing 12 people, including his father and relatives, and torching up to six homes, a government official said.
Police in central China captured on Sunday a man suspected of killing 12 people, including his father and relatives, and torching up to six homes, a government official said.
"The suspect was captured early this morning... and has been taken away by police," a spokesman surnamed Yong for the Gaoming county government in Hunan province said by phone.
"Twelve people were killed, six homes were destroyed by fire. The victims included his father, the others were all his relatives spanning five generations."
The killings took place on Saturday evening, he said.
The suspect was identified as Liu Aibing, 34, a migrant worker with a history of mental illness, the Hunan government news site Hongwang reported.
Liu had recently returned from southern China's Guangdong province where he had sought employment, it said.
Special police and paramilitary troops had cornered Liu on a hilltop near Yinshanpai village, where the killings took place, it said.
Spokesman Yong refused to confirm details of the murders, but Xinhua news agency reported that Liu shot his victims with a hunting rifle.
Two people were also seriously injured in the rampage, it said.
China Central Television reported Sunday that a total of 13 people were killed, but Yong said he could not confirm that.
The Hunan killings are the latest family-related murders in China in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, police in southwest China captured a man suspected of murdering his parents and four other relatives after he escaped from a mental hospital in Yunnan province.
In late November, police in the southern Hainan province captured a man suspected of hacking to death his parents, wife, sons and sister in Beijing.
