Update | Chinese man alive after five killed in Kabul flat
A Chinese man missing since a deadly shooting in Afghanistan's capital on Thursday was last night reported to have been found dead, leaving only one survivor from the incident.
A Chinese man missing since a deadly shooting in Afghanistan's capital on Thursday was last night reported to have been found dead, leaving only one survivor from the incident.
The report, by CCTV, took the death toll in the shooting to five - two Chinese men, two Chinese women and an Afghan security guard.
The lone survivor, who vanished immediately after the shooting in an apartment building in the centre of Kabul, had been found alive and placed under the protection of the Chinese embassy, Xinhua reported earlier.
The embassy urged the Afghan government to investigate whether Chinese citizens were specifically targeted, Xinhua said.
The embassy was working with several Afghan government departments to help with the investigation, and called on them to take all necessary measures to arrest those responsible and to ensure the security of Chinese citizens and institutions in the country.
The identity of the man in the embassy's protection was unclear, but CCTV said all those involved were self-employed.
The two women victims and one of the men killed were found dead in the apartment building on Friday, Xinhua reported, citing embassy officials. The guard was also found dead at the scene.
"Initial investigations show they were perhaps prostitutes killed with a gun with a silencer," General Mohammad Zahir, head of the criminal investigation department, told Agence France-Presse.
Police said the killings took place on Thursday, but their deaths were only reported by a neighbour the next day.
The police said an argument led to the killings, reported. It quoted the owner of the apartment as saying he was unsure of the occupations of the tenants, but described the man who signed the rental agreement, at US$450 a month, as a pious Chinese Muslim.
The deaths did not appear to be politically motivated, the police reportedly said.
Neither the embassy in Kabul nor the Afghan police answered repeated phone calls yesterday.
The embassy earlier called on all Chinese nationals in Afghanistan to be alert when going out, Xinhua reported.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. In the past, both the Taliban and criminal groups have been involved in the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals in Afghanistan.
