The discover presents a $15,600 reward for info that helps police catch Xu. And that might rise to $23,400 for clues that lead on to his arrest — virtually 5 instances the typical annual earnings of Jilin city residents and greater than 9 instances that of these in rural areas.
Xu’s dramatic escape was captured in a surveillance video posted on Chinese social media by quite a lot of state media retailers.
In the footage, Xu is seen scaling the shed, working throughout the roof and utilizing what seems to be a rope to wreck the electrical fence surrounding the jail wall, setting off a sequence of sparks. He then steps onto the fencing to climb over one other steel fence and disappears behind the excessive partitions, as prisoners and guards look on.
Another surveillance video exhibits Xu roll over on the bottom after leaping from the excessive fence. He lies nonetheless for some time earlier than getting up and working away.
But censorship quickly kicked in. The bounty discover was deleted from the Jilin jail police’s social media account, and a few associated hashtags and posts had been faraway from Weibo — together with footage of Xu’s escape.
According to courtroom paperwork, it was simply previous midnight on July 21, 2013, when Xu — a coal miner — swam throughout the river from the northeastern tip of North Korea to a Chinese village within the metropolis of Tumen, Jilin province.
Within hours, he broke into a number of village homes to steal cash, cell telephones, sneakers and garments. At the third home, an outdated girl found him and shouted for assist, the courtroom doc stated.
“I took out a knife tied to my waist and stabbed the granny in the back. Then I noticed she was carrying a satchel. I tried to yank it off her but she wouldn’t let go, so I stabbed her a few times more,” Xu was quoted as saying in courtroom.
Xu was arrested hours later when attempting to flee in a taxi, the courtroom doc stated. The outdated girl suffered extreme accidents however survived, it added.