Four gang members in China's Chongqing Municipality were sentenced to death for a series of attacks in the southwestern city that included one death, two severe injuries and eight minor injuries, a local court said on Thursday.

Mei Zhenping, Li Qing and Zhang Youxiong were sentenced to death and ordered to have all their wealth confiscated for murder, plunder and deliberate harm. Wang Qiping received the death penalty with a two-year reprieve for the same reasons, according to a Chongqing Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruling on Thursday morning.

Another four accomplices received sentences between 3.5 to seven years.

The eight men, which included one person under 18, were alleged to have committed 11 attacks with choppers and stolen 900 yuan (127 U.S. dollars) and five cell phones between March and May last year in Wanzhou District, according to the court.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 14, 2008)