Beijing. A city official in south-west China unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the city's mayor and Communist Party secretary during a meeting on Wednesday, injuring them before fleeing and killing himself, the official news media reported.

Privately owned guns are rare in China, because of a virtual ban on civilian use, and grisly attacks on officials by colleagues are also uncommon.

Panzhihua mayor Li Jianqin (third from left) and colleagues including gunman Chen Zhongshu (second from right) at a market just before Chinese new year. Credit:Panzhihua government website

So rumours of the shooting in Panzhihua, an industrial city in Sichuan province, rippled quickly across the Chinese internet even before local authorities confirmed the news.

Panzhihua was built as part of Mao Zedong's plans to relocate factories deep inland, where they would be protected from a feared war.