A former Party chief of Shangcheng county, Henan Province, was rescued a day after he was kidnapped outside his house Thursday night, media reported Sunday.
Li Shaowen, the abducted official, was successfully rescued and two suspects of a gang were apprehended with another at large, the public security bureau of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, announced via its Sina Weibo account on Sunday.
One of the captured suspects surnamed Wang collected Li's profile information online and conspired with the other two suspects surnamed Yuan and Shi to scout out Li's residence and observe his daily activities, said the police.
Li was the Party chief of Shangcheng county from July 2007 to April 2011, before he assumed the position of deputy Party chief of the Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy in March 2015.
The three snatched Li outside his house in Zhengzhou on Thursday night, and police received a call about the kidnapping on Friday morning, according to the police statement.
The statement did not reveal the motivation of the suspects.
The kidnappers drove all the way to Xinyang, Henan Province, but the car caught on fire for unknown reasons when they arrived at a village in Xinyang, news site caijing.com.cn reported on Sunday.
Li fled after the car caught fire.
One of the kidnappers was apprehended at 4:30 pm on Friday and another turned himself in, with the third fleeing to Liulin township nearby.
Police in Liulin told the Global Times that they are still hunting for the third suspect. Xinyang police set up checkpoints along the road on Friday to search passing cars and question male drivers and passengers.
Li tried to attract investors for an exposition park project worth 3.2 billion yuan ($504 million) when he served as the Party chief of Shangcheng, but the project was left unfinished due to financial problems, caijing.com.cn reported.
Another Party chief in Weining county, Guizhou Province, was kidnapped and held for 21 million yuan, the Southern Weekly reported in 2007.
