An intoxicated father-of-one accused of hitting a woman has died whilst in the custody of police.

The death of the man surnamed Xu, of Changzhou, in Jiangsu Province, is the second death of a prisoner within a month in which alcohol or drugs was said to have been connected.

Xu was taken away - but not arrested - by local police on Monday after a woman alleged that she had been harassed.

Police said they took Xu to the station together with the woman but found him too drunk to answer their questions, so they let him lay on a bench to sober up.

Officers "treated him well", made Xu tea, and occasionally went in to check on the prisoner, police said.

But at 11pm, the officer on duty found Xu's condition to be "abnormal" and sent him to the hospital "at once", the Yangtze Evening News reported.

Xu, who was divorced and worked as a loader, was dead when he arrived at the hospital.

The hospital said the cause of death could be alcohol poisoning, police told the newspaper.

Xu's nephew, from the Jiangsu city of Xuzhou, said his uncle enjoyed drinking alcohol but alleged Xu may have been restrained at the station.

"My uncle was alive when he was taken away. The police should give us a convincing reason for his death," he told the newspaper.

Xu "might not have died if he had been taken to hospital earlier," the nephew said.

Neighbor Wang Lanfang told the report that Xu was "absolutely sozzled" when he was taken away.

The woman Xu is accused of assaulting had a bruise on her face and mud on her clothing, Wang said.

Officers said they could not find the woman now.Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. The local procuratorate has been asked to participate in the inquiry.

Relatives will be informed of the outcome as soon as possible, police said.

The incident follows the death of 27-year-old villager Xie Gaofeng in Hunan province on March 18.

Xie was in police custody following accusations of theft.

At the time, local police said Xie was a drug addict, but the official cause of death has not yet been released.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Public Security ordered police to report any unusual death of a detainee to the provincial level within eight hours, and it vowed to seriously deal with any police found responsible.

China's first human rights action plan released on Monday promised to improve conditions for detainees and ban extraction of confessions by torture.

The National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-10) also prohibits corporal punishment or abuse of detainees, following reports of several unnatural deaths of people in prison recently.

(China Daily April 17, 2009)