Kyrgyz police have arrested three suspects in the shooting of a Chinese diplomat in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, interior ministry spokesman Kubanych Keldibayev said Tuesday.

The three, two Chinese nationals and an ethnic Uighur Kyrgyz citizen, were being questioned on suspicion of being linked to the crime, he said, adding that Chinese security officials had arrived in Kyrgyzstan to help investigate the shooting.

The Chinese diplomat and his driver were gunned down in the centre of Bishkek late on Saturday, in an attack which local officials speculate may have involved Muslim separatists from China's Xinjiang region.

Eyewitnesses saw two young men fire a pistol at the diplomat's Mercedes at around 8:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Saturday before fleeing in another car, the interior ministry said.

Police said they were investigating whether his driver, an ethnic Uighur businessman, was the prime target of the crime.

China has condemned the killing as "an evil act" and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to conduct a speedy investigation and punish the culprits.

(China Daily July 3, 2002)