FIVE people were killed, including two police officers, in a shooting yesterday in rural northern China, police said.

    The shooting, which happened Monday night, led to a standoff, which lasted until early yesterday morning in Xishibao Village of Suning County in Hebei Province.

    Gun crime is rare in China, where private ownership of firearms is illegal.

    The gunman, 40-year-old Liu Shuangrui, who was among those killed, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, according to the Cangzhou police department.

    Liu opened fire in the small village, located about two hours south of Beijing, killing two people and wounding three others, police said.

    Liu then shot dead two police officers. Two other police officers were among five people injured in the shooting.

    China Central Television called it a “mass shooting.”

    Police cornered Liu in his house before breaking in around dawn and finding him dead. The cause of his death was not yet known.

    CCTV said Liu had been shot.

    An investigation is under way.

    In December, an employee of China’s central bank shot and killed two colleagues at the branch he was working at in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

    (Xinhua)