The murder of a government official in the coastal city of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province is being investigated by local police. 

Chen Zhenghua, 51, deputy director of the Marine and Fishery Bureau of Suixi County (MFBSC) in Zhanjiang, was killed in his office on Wednesday morning at around 10 AM.

Sources with the Suixi public security authority revealed yesterday that an hour after the murder, Xuan Xiong, 56, director of the MFBSC, confessed to the crime.

"We're investigating the cause of death. We were greatly shocked when Xuan surrendered himself since, you know, both Xuan and Chen are government officials working in the same office," said a local police officer surnamed Deng. Xuan and Chen had held their posts for several years.

"We've never heard of any personal dispute between them. We are so curious about Xuan's reason for killing his colleague," a clerk at Xuan's bureau who declined to be named was quoted as saying by the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News.

"Xuan had developed very good relationships with his colleagues. We don't know why he committed such a crime since he's even afraid of killing a chicken," said the clerk, who formerly worked as Xuan's personal driver.

Xuan returned to his home just before 11 AM on Wednesday and was "very depressed", according to his wife. "He even contemplated suicide but I stopped him and later he told me that he had killed his colleague," she said. 

The murder follows another case in which six people were killed in the Nanhai District of Foshan in Guangdong.

In that case initial investigation by the Foshan public security authority said Huang Wenyi, who was suspected of killing five members of his family and one of his employees, may have "suffered from a serious mental problem". Huang, 34, who was arrested on Monday in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, is being questioned. 

In the latest twist local police discovered a "secret letter" written by Huang at his home. However, details about the letter haven't been disclosed. A police officer surnamed Xiao said the results of the investigation would be announced today.

(China Daily January 5, 2007)