Gunman kills 3 judges then commits suicide

A man carrying two rifles and a pistol entered a court office in Yongzhou, Hunan , yesterday and killed three judges before putting the gun into his mouth and pulling the trigger, according to official state media.

Three others were wounded in the incident, which occurred around 10am at the Lingling District People's Court, Xinhua reported.

The attacker, identified as Zhu Jun, 46, was head of the security department of a local postal savings bank. He rushed into the court building and went to an office on the third floor.

He killed three senior judges, but only two have been identified - Zhao Hulin and Jiang Qidong . The wounded people included another judge, Huang Lan , and two clerks. The judges were discussing a case in which Zhu was not involved, said a spokesman of the city's Communist Party Propaganda Department.

As news of the tragedy spread, gleeful comments about the tragedy on internet forums reflected the corruption of the mainland's judiciary system in the eyes of ordinary people. But authorities moved quickly to block the many posts calling Zhu a hero. Sympathetic posts were minimal. News reports of the killings were blocked or removed from several mainland news websites.

Xinhua released reports in the late afternoon yesterday identifying Zhu, saying he had tricked colleagues at the bank into giving him the guns. It also said Zhu had been divorced for three years and lived with his son and parents.

Police cordoned off the court from onlookers who flocked there in the rain. They neither confirmed Zhu's motive nor did they say how he could have entered the building carrying guns without being noticed. China News Service speculated that Zhu was angry that the court had once ordered him to pay 20,000 yuan to his former wife in the division of property after their divorce.