The suspects in a rare shootout on Tuesday in east China's Shandong Province, which killed three law enforcement officers, had criminal records, local police have revealed.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Tai'an police publicly identified the suspects as Liu Lumin, 52, and his brother Liu Jianjun, 50.

According to earlier briefings by the police, law enforcement officers visited Liu Jianjun's home in Tai'an city on Tuesday morning to investigate a murder case in the province's Dezhou city that allegedly involved Liu Lumin. The brothers opened fire on the officers and tried to flee, starting a shootout and car chase through the city.

Liu Lumin killed himself when the police surrounded him and Liu Jianjun in downtown Tai'an, Xu Zhigang, deputy head of the local public security bureau, said at a news conference. Liu Jianjun was captured and later taken to a hospital for treatment.

More than 60 police officers were dispatched to chase the suspects and five police cars were damaged after crashing with the car the suspects drove.

The suspects kept shooting at the police as they fled, according to Xu Zhigang. Both of them were jobless and had criminal records, according to Xu.

Liu Lumin, a resident of Dezhou city, was under administrative detention for five days on a theft charge in August 2008.

Liu Jianjun, a resident of Tai'an city, had served two jail terms on intentional injury and theft convictions from 1985 to 2000 before being released on parole in April 2000.

On Wednesday morning the identities of three policemen killed in the shootout on Tuesday were released. They were: Xia Bo, 36, a senior criminal police officer with the city's public security bureau; Li Liang, 24, an auxiliary police officer with the Daizongfang police station; and Qi Honghai, 48, a traffic police officer with the city's public security bureau.

Local residents on Wednesday held a mourning ceremony for the officers, laying wreaths at the site of the shootout.

All six people wounded in the shootout were under treatment in two hospitals in Tai'an, reported local media on Wednesday.

Four of those people are police officers and include Zhang Bo, a traffic police officer, and Qian Xiangcun, a criminal police officer, local media reported. They did not name the other two injured policemen. The other two people are unnamed civilians.

Shootouts between the police and suspects are rare in China as the country bans possession of firearms by individuals.

Witnesses have recounted the gunfight in more details.

"The gunshots sounded like firecrackers except for the loud shouts," an anonymous witness, who had been selling baked sweet potatoes at the site, told the local media.

"When I realized those were gunshots, I saw several men with blood stains," she said. "Some people were chasing and shooting at the men running in front of them."

Two men ran to a car and knocked on the car's windows with guns, she added. The driver in the car ignored them and drove away.

They then rushed to a parked car, whose driver was buying lottery tickets, she said, recalling that the two suspects pointed their guns at the man's head, forced him to give them the car's key and drove away.

Wang Xinlu, another witness and owner of a restaurant near the initial gunfight scene, told the local media that he had recognized one of the suspects, who lived near his restaurant.

(China Daily January 6, 2011)