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Reuters' Beijing office bomb
threat a hoax: Police

March 12, 2003 14:36 IST

A high-voltage five-hour drama at the Beijing office of Reuters news agency ended peacefully on Wednesday after Chinese police captured a man who intruded the premises claiming to have a bomb and demanding coverage of his complaints about corruption in the country.

"The bomb was found to be a hoax," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Beijing police as saying.

The intruder, aged around 30, has been identified by the police as Fang Qinghui.
  
Fang, a native of Yichun in Heilongjiang province, remained in the newsroom of Reuters' bureau office while some armed police surrounded him from outside. TV shots showed the intruder wearing a black jacket and carrying a black bag.

Earlier, some armed policemen, fire fighters and first-aid workers carrying stretchers had entered the building. The incident, which occurred right in the middle of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, has shaken the Chinese capital's security apparatus.