Two held after Chengdu gun battle

A suspect is arrested in the Chenghua District of Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, July 31, 2013. A gun fight took place as drug dealers resisted arrest from the police. One suspect jumped from a building and was killed while another two were arrested. (Xinhua/Xue Yubin)

A man suspected to be a drug dealer died on Wednesday after a gunfight with local police in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Local police confirmed to the Global Times that the man jumped to his death from the building where the shootout took place.

Two other suspects, an unarmed man and a woman, who shared a rented room with the dead suspect, were arrested.

An officer from a police station in Chenghua district told the Global Times that the dead suspect, reportedly a drug dealer, moved from Baotou, a city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Chengdu about six months ago. Local police have been following him for the past few weeks and were ready to make an arrest when they came to his apartment on Wednesday morning.

The dead suspect was said to have suddenly emerged from his apartment with a gun when the policemen were trying to talk him into surrendering. One policeman got shot in the shoulder and is being treated at a local hospital.

The suspect and police exchanged gunfire before the suspect tried to set his apartment on fire after he ran out of bullets. The police also used stun grenades to try to get him out.

Special forces later broke into his room, only to find that the suspect had already jumped out of the 10th floor apartment window. The case is still under investigation.

Others in the building were evacuated and the area was cordoned off until around 5 pm Wednesday afternoon.

A resident living in the same building told the Chengdu-based newspaper West China City Daily that he frequently saw strangers going in and out of the suspect's apartment, adding that the lights were turned off even at night.