Society

Land grab, desperate stab, and two deaths

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-25 17:24

TAIYUAN - A woman died after falling suddenly ill in a police station in North China's Shanxi province where she was being questioned over her husband's alleged stabbing of a government employee to death in a relocation dispute, provincial police said Saturday.

Qiao Xianglian became sick in the police bureau of Shuocheng district, Shuozhou city and died in a local hospital after treatment failed, according to a statement from the provincial police department.

The police have audio and video recordings of Qiao's stay in the police station. She was immediately sent to the hospital at about 4 pm and died at 7:23 pm, the statement said.

The previous day, Qiao's husband Wu Xuewen wielded a knife and threw bricks at a group of government employees who had come to demand him to leave his scheduled-for-demolition house, according to the statement.

To prevent Wu from injuring others, Liu Zhixiu, head of Shuocheng district's Housing and Development bureau, tried to persuade Wu to give up resistance. During a face-to-face negotiation, Wu took out a dagger hidden down his pants and stabbed Liu several times, according to the statement.

Then Wu stabbed Zhong Wei, an employee of the bureau, who had come up to help Liu. Zhong died in hospital while Liu was in stable condition.

Wu Xuewen was in police custody, it added.