Five dead, five injured in China shooting

Five people, including two police officers, have been killed and five others injured in a shooting incident in China’s northern province of Hebbi.

The incident occurred in a village in Suning county on Tuesday, when the suspected gunman opened fire with a double-barrelled shotgun.

According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the gunman, Liu Shuangrui, who was among the dead, turned the gun on his neighbors, killing two of them, before police arrived at the scene.

Two officers, including the political commissar of the county police department, were then shot to death before Liu was shot and killed.

It is said that the other victims and those injured in the attack were farmers.

Reports said that the 40-year-old gunman suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The motive behind the incident was not clear.

{{Gallery}}

In December 2014, a Chinese central bank employee shot four colleagues, killing two, in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

Mass shootings, however, are rare in China, where firearms are tightly controlled and private gun ownership is restricted.

YH/HMV

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk