A man who killed a taxi driver and two pedestrians in downtown Beijing was executed on Friday.

Ai Xuqiang, a 32-year-old farmer from central China's Henan Province, bashed a taxi driver to death with a heavy metal bar in Beijing's Dongcheng District on Sept. 11 last year.

The murderer then stole the taxi and sped along Wangfujing Street, the city's most glittering shopping thoroughfare, knocking down nine pedestrians. Two of the nine people were killed.

Beijing's Second Intermediate People's Court convicted Ai of murder, robbery and jeopardizing public security and sentenced him to death.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2006)