Two Vietnamese border guards and five Chinese nationals were killed in ashooting incident at a border gate in the northern province ofQuang Ninh on April 18, and a local official affirmed this is not aterror case but a spontaneous act by the Chinese illegal immigrants.
A number of others, including four Vietnamese border guards, were also wounded, the official added.
The immigrants, including 10 men, four women and two children, weredetained early on the day when they were trying to illegally penetratedeep into Vietnam through Bac Phong Sinh border gate in Hai Hadistrict in the early morning. Later, they were taken back to the bordergate.
At noon, when procedures were beingcompleted for handing them over to Chinese authorities in line withregulations and international common practice, some of the Chinese mensnatched a gun from an officer and started to fire, killing a Vietnameseborder guard on the spot. This forced the Vietnamese border guards totake legitimate self-defence measures.
Turning adeaf ear to the persuasion efforts by Vietnamese and Chineseauthorities who called on them to lay down the gun and surrender, thegroup holed up and tried to destroy the office of the Vietnamese borderguards, prompting law enforcement authorities to take professionalmeasures to approach and arrest them.
However,they resisted the border guards and, at the same time, woundedthemselves. Some jumped off the building and committed suicide.
Quang Ninh authorities immediately acted to restore order andsecurity in the area, and joined hands with Chinese authorities to solvethe consequences.
At 3:15pm, the situation wasput under control. Local authorities are actively coordinating with theChinese side to deal with the incident in line with the two countries’laws and international common practice.-VNA