A government official in Liuzhou city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was killed in an attempted robbery on Thursday, the local police confirmed with the Global Times.

He Bin, the 51-year-old director of the Liuzhou City Planning Bureau, was said to have been stabbed several times in the chest and the back around 1:30 pm Thursday afternoon.

A home-made bomb that the robber brought with him also went off during the incident.  He's wife was also injured and is receiving medical treatment in a local hospital.

He was initially said to have been killed by a petitioner, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

"We received a 110 call around 1:30 pm in the afternoon from a resident in Liubei district," a police officer who only gave his surname as Liu told the Global Times. "Several patrol police officers from a nearby station arrived at the crime scene around 1:45 pm and found the victim already dead."

The suspect, according to the police statement released Thursday night, was a 49-year-old man named Luo Haomin. Luo was said to have followed He to his apartment in an attempted robbery and attacked him when he resisted.

Luo was arrested at the crime scene by the police. They found on him the knife he had used to stab He and a toy handgun Luo had probably used to threaten the victim during the fight.

"The wife's injury is not critical and she will recover after a while," said the police.