Car crashes into guardrail of US Consulate in China

BEIJING: A "mentally confused" man crashed his car into the guardrail of the US Consulate in Shanghai last night, injuring a Chinese armed guard and sparking a security alert.

The car, a black Toyota sedan, with license plate registered in southeast China's Fujian Province drove along the South Urumqi Road before it suddenly veered right to hit the guardrail of the side entrance of the Consulate at 9:43 PM (local time), Shanghai police said.

Police and consulate guards captured the driver. A Chinese armed police guard posted outside the Consulate was injured in the incident.

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 people's attention, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"I drove from Hangzhou to Shanghai today, and saw the place is guarded by armed police. So I crashed my car into it," the police statement quoted Liu as saying.

Liu showed confusion of thinking, and spoke incoherently. "During his confession, the driver was mentally confused and rambling," police statement was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

The police has basically ruled out drunk driving and drug driving. Further investigation is under way, it said.

The injured guard, Sun Tao, was unconscious for a brief period and was taken to a hospital. He suffered injuries to his mouth, face and chest.

Photographs circulated on social media showed a barricade in front of the Consulate's gate had been damaged by the car.

The barrier was later removed by paramilitary police. Another image showed what appeared to be blood on the ground.

The news service Caixin reported that security has been stepped up in the area by paramilitary police.