In San Francisco, United States, police fatally shot a man who had deliberately crashed his car into the Chinese consulate.
The man, as per reports, had ploughed his car into the consulate, driving his car into the lobby of the building’s visa office on Monday.
As per the police, details of the incident remain sketchy. The identity of the motorist and his motive behind crashing into the consular office remain unknown.
“I don’t know how many people were inside the visa office at the time of the collision,” said San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Kathryn Winters during a news briefing hours after the incident.
There are no reports of anyone else getting injured in the crash.
Winters told the press that upon arrival of the police at the scene, “they found the vehicle had come to rest inside the lobby of the Chinese Consulate.”
The officers entered the premises and “made contact with the suspect, and an officer-involved shooting occurred.”
“The suspect was later pronounced deceased at the hospital. This is an open and active investigation,” said the spokesperson.
Winters also disclosed that the police were coordinating with investigators from the US State Department.
“There’s very little information that we can give at this time.”
A serious threat to staff
In a statement, San Francisco’s Chinese diplomatic post called it “a serious threat to the safety of the staff and people at the scene”.
It said that an “unidentified person drove violently into the document hall of the consulate, posing a serious threat to the safety of the staff and people at the scene, and causing serious damage to the facilities and property of the consulate.”
Strongly condemning the incident, the consulate said it “reserves the right to pursue responsibility for the incident.”
On its WeChat account, the consulate said it would temporarily close its consular certificate hall from October 10 and said that it would inform the public when services will resume.