Video shows car crashing into US consulate in Shanghai

World Today

Video shows car crashing into US consulate in Shanghai

Surveillance tape shows a car crashing into the guardrail of the Consulate General of the United States in Shanghai late Thursday, injuring a Chinese armed police guard.

In a statement released early Friday, Shanghai police said the car, a black Toyota sedan with the license plate registered in southeast China’s Fujian Province, drove along South Urumqi Road before it suddenly veered right to hit the guardrail of the side entrance of the consulate. Police nearby and consulate guards captured the driver.

The injured guard named Sun Tao joined the army in 2011. He was injured on his mouth, face and chest and received treatment in Huashan Hospital.

“We found a Toyota car making a u-turn here and then suddenly speeding up towards the gate here. The guards on No.2 Sentry immediately went over to stop it. The squad leader Sun Tao was knocked away,” said Chen Zhaochang, a guard on the spot, who also got some scratches on his leg and finger.

The driver, identified as Liu Daojie, 35, from Sanming City of Fujian Province, claimed he ran a large company in Fujian and felt someone wanted to kill him, so he needed to provoke an incident to draw attention.

Liu was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident late Thursday, and the case was still under investigation, police said on their official microblog site.

Felix Salazar, spokesman for the consulate, confirmed the incident and said the consulate was open for business as normal on Friday. He said it had no further details to provide because the matter remained under investigation.

Shanghai’s government said Liu’s wife told police that he had refused to leave home for about a month over fears of being assassinated, and that a doctor had told him not to fantasize.

She said they went to get medical treatment for him in Suzhou and he had left their hotel on Thursday afternoon saying he had to do some business, the city government said in a statement.

All foreign embassies and consulates, as well as major Chinese government buildings, are guarded by armed paramilitary police.

Report compiled with information from The Associated Press and CCTV News.