Man dies after jumping off Beijing subway platform

Police deal with the suicide accident at the Xuanwumen Station on Subway Line 2, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 11, 2013. Subway Line 2 was halted after a man jumped off the platform killing himself at a downtown station in Beijing on Monday. The station was forced to close and trains on the line had to be halted. The service resumed at 5:41 p.m. on Nov. 11. (Xinhua/Yang Yichen)

A Beijing subway line was halted after a man "jumped off the platform" killing himself at a downtown station on Monday evening, subway operator and witnesses said.

Sources with Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corporation Limited, the operator, said the incident happened at 5:24 p.m. at Xuanwumen Station on Line 2. Xinhua reporters at the site said armed policemen and subway staff rushed into a train to evacuate passengers and medical staff later arrived.

Sources told Xinhua that the man was killed in the incident.

The station was forced to close and trains running clockwise on the line had to be halted. The service resumed at 5:41 p.m., reporters and subway authorities said.

The loop line, which runs 23 kilometers with 18 stations along Beijing's second ring road in the capital's downtown area, is one of the busiest in the capital. It started operation in 1987 and transports more than one million people each day.

The suspension made other subway lines, such as Line 1, 4, and 5, even more crowded. The intervals were much longer than normal.

Beijing, with nearly 20.7 million people, has 14 subway lines carrying over 8.5 million passengers on an average day, according to official figures.