Murder suspect who killed eight was only half done, police say

A man accused of murdering eight people, including a two-year-old boy, in Suizhou , Hubei province , last week, intended to kill nine others but was prevented from doing so when police officers asked to borrow his motorised tricycle.

Xiong Zhenlin , a 35-year-old scrap dealer who was captured in Wuhan last weekend, confessed that he had planned to kill others who had 'had previous disputes with him', the municipal public security bureau said.

But he fled after seeing police on their way to his home, it said.

When officers turned up at his door at about 2am on January 5 to borrow his tricycle to transport an abandoned motorcycle to the police station, Xiong had already killed his 43-year-old girlfriend, Zhu Deqing , and her two-year-old grandson with an axe at their home.

He had also trapped and killed six other people involved in his business in the course of the previous day.

Xiong said he had fled because he thought the police knew about the murders. He bought clothes and a hat from the owner of a small hotel in Suizhou and took a bus to Wuhan before heading to Haikou , Hainan , on January 7.

He returned to Wuhan three days later and hid in a deserted swimming-pool complex.