President Xi Jinping's corruption crackdown linked to officials' suicides

Reports of a third Chinese official committing suicide last month - following news that four other officials killed themselves in March - have caused a stir among users of mainland social media.

On Thursday morning Chen Tianhong, the head of a town in Jiangsu province, jumped to his death from the 21st floor of the government building.

Family members said Chen, 34, was emotionally unstable at the time of his death after suffering from serious insomnia, the Xinhua news agency reported.

His death was the third suicide of an official to be reported by Chinese media last month, after the division head of the public security bureau of Mudanjiang city , in northeastern Heilongjiang province, hanged himself on Friday last week and the Communist party chief of Yizhou city , in southern Guangxi province, leapt to his death last Tuesday.

In March, four officials jumped to their deaths on three consecutive days.

Some internet users questioned what had gone wrong with mainland officials, with many suggesting the deaths could be linked to the crackdown on corruption launched by President Xi Jinping after he came to power in November 2012.

The number of suicides recorded by officials has risen sharply in recent years, which analysts said was inevitably linked to Xi's anti-graft campaign. More than 100 "tigers" - corrupt senior officials - and many low-level cadres "flies" have been purged.