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A manhunt was underway in southwest China Thursday, with authorities offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in a gun incident that killed three people and injured two more, according to security officials.
Gun violence is uncommon in China, where firearm regulations are among the tightest in the world.
The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Muchuan, a tiny county under Leshan city in Sichuan province, according to a statement issued by the local public security agency on Wednesday.
Police stated the culprit, identified as Li Qiang, “injured two people with guns and killed three people with weapons.”
Police stated all “weapons and ammunition involved in the case were seized,” and they offered a 100,000 yuan ($15,000) reward to anyone who “provides effective clues or catches the criminal suspects.”
According to a city public security bureau report, the 36-year-old suspect was a police officer who received a bravery award last year after saving an elderly man and a lady from drowning in two different incidents.
That article has now been removed from their website, although it is still viewable in Google cache.
The AFP was able to identify that the suspect was the same officer because authorities published the suspect’s full name and birth date on both the reward announcement and the bravery award.
The incident sparked significant debate on social media, with related hashtags being viewed over 250 million times.
While guns are carefully prohibited, China has experienced a surge in mass stabbings in recent years.
In June of last year, a knife-wielding guy slashed passersby on a pedestrian retail area in the eastern Chinese city of Anqing, killing six and injuring fourteen.
Last April, a knife-wielding man entered a kindergarten in southern China, killing two children and injuring 16 others.
