Authorities in central China's Hunan Province have launched an investigation into the death of a teenager in police custody.

Hu Fenqiang, 18, died in a hospital in Xiangtan County, Hunan, on Thursday after being transferred there from the county Public Security Bureau headquarters.

Hu was taken to the hospital earlier that day after appearing unwell during interrogation, said an official of the Xiangtan County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The official, who would not be named, said a panel comprising personnel from the CPC county committee, the county people's congress, the procuratorate and other departments would investigate the death of Hu, a native of the county.

An autopsy would be held to establish the cause of death, said the official.

A local Party committee source said Hu was suspected of carrying out multiple robberies in Xiangtan county, and Yuetang district of Xiangtan City, also in Hunan Province, from Nov.30,to Dec. 24 last year, and of injuring others with a knife on July 21, 2007.

Police listed Hu as wanted on the Internet in January and police stopped Hu in Yuetang district early this month. He was transferred to Xiangtan County on March 11.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2009)