Police in Zhejiang Province are still seeking two fruit vendors after they allegedly stabbed three urban management officers over confiscated equipment in the capital city of Hangzhou on Sunday, the City Express reported.

Wang Jian and Chu Zhaojiang were stabbed but have been released from hospital while the other victim, 31-year-old Hu Shiyang, is still being treated for abdominal wounds.

Hu told the newspaper that the incident occurred at 9:30pm, 30 minutes before the officers completed their shift. The couple broke into the office and demanded their confiscated electric scales be returned, the report said.

"My colleagues and I had asked the couple not to sell watermelons on the street three times before we spoke to them at 9pm a fourth time,'' Hu told the newspaper. "At that time the couple was selling watermelons beside a blue van."

"Our fourth attempt failed again, so we seized the electric scales and demanded they come to the office the next day to resolve the issue," he told the newspaper.

However, the couple turned up at the office 30 minutes later, demanding their electric scales.

"Before we could have a few words, the woman started to throw things and smashed the computer. We were about to overpower her when the man suddenly took out a knife,'' the report quoted Hu as saying.

He allegedly attempted to stab urban management officer Li Jin, but he escaped. The man then stabbed Chu in the left arm, left wrist and right hand. Later he attacked Wang, who suffered several cuts on the neck, before turning on Hu, who had the lining of his abdominal cavity punctured.

The suspects fled in a van, the newspaper said.

(Shanghai Daily July 8, 2008)