Related News

Home » Metro » Society

Man crashes his car into US Consulate in Shanghai

A man crashed his black sedan into the US Consulate in Shanghai at 10pm yesterday, injuring a guard.

The driver Liu Daojie, 35, was from Sanming City, southeast China’s Fujian Province. He is now in custody and police investigation ruled out that he was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Xuhui District police said in a statement.

Police said Liu told them he was a successful businessman in Sanming and somebody was trying to kill him. He said he hit the sentry box with the car because he wanted to get authorities’ attention.

One person -- a member of the paramilitary People's Armed Police which guard diplomatic missions in China among other duties -- noticed that the vehicle was driving strangely towards the gate on Huaihai Road M. and tried to stop it.

He was knocked out before other guards stopped Liu, and came back to consciousness in a hospital afterwards. He suffered injuries in his head, face and chest.

A spokesman for the US consulate confirmed an "incident", but said the matter was still under investigation, according to AFP

"All mission personnel at the consulate general have been accounted for and the consulate general is expected to be open for business as usual today, the 13th," he told AFP.

Liu, who runs his own company, told police he felt someone wanted to kill him. Authorities had initially ruled out alcohol or drugs as the possible cause, adding the man appeared to be "confused".

"Today I drove from Hangzhou to Shanghai, and saw this place guarded by armed police. So I drove up," the police statement quoted him as saying, adding that his "thoughts were muddled and words incoherent".

Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province, which borders Shanghai.

It was unclear whether Liu was aware the compound in the city's downtown houses some functions of the US government in Shanghai.

Images posted on social media showed the car, which appeared to have mounted the pavement and crashed into a barricade next to a sentry box at the consulate.

Liu's wife said her husband had believed someone was trying to kill him for the past month and had refused to go out, according to the police statement. He had previously sought medical help.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend