A Chinese man killed himself in a detention facility in Tokyo after he was detained for trying to get into Japan illegally, China News Service reported yesterday.

The man, identified only as Chinese and around the age of 30, was declared dead early on Saturday morning after police from Tokyo Immigration Administration had taken him to hospital the day before, the report said.

The administration said it had been preparing documentation to send the man back to China, according to the report.

Police watching monitor screens at a detention house in Tokyo's Minato-ku District around 9:15am on Friday saw him winding electrical wires round his neck and then hanging himself from the cell window, the report said. They rushed to the room, cut him down and took him to hospital.

The wires were from an electric kettle in the single room, the report said.

Police said there was nothing abnormal about the man's behavior when the number of inmates was checked just 15 minutes earlier.

There will be an investigation into the death.

(Shanghai Daily March 23, 2009)