The murder of a woman in Chongqing, China, on Friday has resulted in a huge search for the suspected killer, Zhou Kehua, according to Chinese media.
Shanghai Daily reports that a gunman shot the woman, her companion, and a guard as he grabbed the woman's handbag. Images posted online show a bloody scene outside of the bank.
Zhou Kehua is the suspect named by police, and there is much speculation that he is also the man responsible for a series of similar crimes in the city of Nanjing stretching back to 2004. Shanghai Daily reports that the Nanjing robber was once dubbed "the most dangerous man in China" for a string of attacks and bank robberies that left at least 6 dead.
Private fire arms are illegal in China and gun crime is relatively rare, meaning that the case has received a large amount of attention (social network QQ has even set up a page dedicated to the capture of Zhou). "We have not seen this kind of cold-blooded killer in years," one police official told Xinhua news agency.
Zhou is reportedly being chased by police officers in the mountains near Chongqing, but he is apparently proving difficult to catch. There are even reports that he has killed one police officer who tried to arrest him (Bill Bishop of the Sinocism blog has dubbed him the "Chinese Rambo").
Authorities have placed a 5.4 million yuan ($850,393) bounty on Zhou's head, according to media reports.
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