13,000 police search for ex-officer turned killer
Authorities are offering rewards totalling almost 2.5 million yuan (HK$3.07 million) in a massive manhunt for a policeman turned violent robber who has been on the run for nearly eight years.
More than 13,000 officers have been mobilised in an attempt to seal off Nanjing after a man was gunned down in the street moments after withdrawing 200,000 yuan at a bank in the city centre on Friday.
Local media broadcast footage of police in bulletproof camouflage vests and armed with semi-automatic rifles searching traffic on expressways leading out of the city.
Police said they believed the culprit to be former paramilitary police officer Zeng Kaigui, 42, who is wanted for six other armed robberies since April 2004 that killed six people and injured four in Chongqing and Changsha, Hunan.
Zeng - who also uses the alias Zeng Zhiping and the nickname 'Siniang', meaning 'fourth mother' - is originally from Neijiang, Sichuan, and is said to speak with a strong Sichuan accent. He served in the paramilitary police in Yunnan province and is said to be an expert in evasion.
Police in Nanjing's Xuanwu district added 50,000 yuan to the rewards offered by investigators around the country - including 100,000 yuan pledged by Xiaguan district, the scene of Friday's shooting - bringing the total to 2.45 million.
Nanjing police have released photographs and two short videos from security cameras of the killer fleeing the scene in a dark-blue jacket and trousers, wearing gloves and a peaked black hat and carrying a dark bag with the stolen cash.
Gun crime remains rare on the mainland and the violence of this robbery has stunned internet users, particularly given that it took place in broad daylight.
