China factory worker condemned to death for murdering six

Shanghai

 A Chinese court on Wednesday condemned to death a chemicals factory worker who murdered six people in the commercial hub Shanghai over a dispute with his colleagues, local media reported.

 The Shanghai Number Two Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence for Fan Jieming, 62, who killed four co-workers, a taxi driver and a guard at a military barracks in June 2013, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said on its website.

 The crimes, committed over a six-hour period, arose from a dispute with his colleagues over how to divide up materials and other assets from the shuttered chemical plant where they worked, it said.

 Media reports said he used a hunting rifle and a metal pipe. Shootings are rare in China, where firearms possession is illegal for individuals.

 The newspaper report did not say if Fan would appeal. Under Chinese law, the country's Supreme Court must review death sentences before they can be carried out.

 Social tensions have mounted in China in recent years against the backdrop of a widening income gap and abuses of public power, with disputes over even trifling issues sometimes triggering serious incidents.

 In April a man who injured more than 30 people by setting fire to a bus in the city of Hangzhou was executed.