Photo: Sina Weibo account of police in Jingkai district, Hefei, East China's Anhui Province

Procuratorate of Hefei, East China's Anhui Province, on Thursday declared local police innocent in accordance with China's Criminal Law for a suspect's death during capture in August, denying online rumors said that the police broke the suspect's ribs and beat him to massive internal haemorrhage.

The suspect, named Zhou Jinbao, tried to escape in car and strongly resisted the police who tried to capture him for a case involving guns on August 20, according to the Hefei procuratorate announcement on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo. 

Zhou suddenly fainted after being subdued by the police. 

The police gave him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and called the ambulance immediately. Zhou died after the rescue turned out to be invalid. 

The procuratorate said they had entrusted an organization approved by Zhou's family to conduct forensic examination on Zhou's body. 

The result confirmed that the suspect was dead of "mechanical asphyxiation caused by chest and abdomen compression," which denied rumors online saying two of Zhou's ribs were beaten broken by the police and a lot of extravasated blood was found in his head and private parts.  

Previous rumors said that Zhou was captured by police officers in plain clothes and was taken to the police station, where he died that night. 

The procuratorate noted in the announcement that the police had shown identity to Zhou during the capture and conducted no irregular behaviors. The police's conduct did not constitute crimes. 

According to an announcement Hefei police released on Weibo on Wednesday, Zhou, 39, was a driver in the Baohe district, Hefei. 

Zhou was a suspect of a case involving guns on July 6, on which the police had captured 11 suspects and seized 17 guns, read the announcement.  

Hefei police refused to release more details of the case when reached by the Global Times reporter. 

Chinese netizens and experts showed support to Hefei police, saying that they support regular and legal enforcement. 

"Only when the police's right to conduct legal enforcement is safeguarded, can the people's safety be safeguarded!" a Weibo user commented.

"Chinese police officers are very restrained and humane in enforcement, requiring the minimum use of force and weapons, which sometimes even puts them at a disadvantage, " a legal expert with Beijing-based People's Public Security University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday under the condition of anonymity. 

In 2018, a total of 308 police officers in the Chinese mainland had sacrificed during duties.