Singapore police shoot dead man near Shangri-La summit
photo
Singapore police say they have
killed a man and detained two others near a hotel hosting a top-level
international security conference.
Defence ministers and leaders from the Asia-Pacific region were at the summit, known as The Shangri-La Dialogue.
Police say they opened fire after a car rammed through police barricades.
The
summit ended with China defending its controversial policy of land
reclamation in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
Police say Sunday's shooting is under investigation, but that it appeared to be an isolated incident unrelated to the conference.
China 'restrained'
Extra
security had been in place due to the conference, which was attended by
senior defence leaders including US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter,
who spoke at the summit on Saturday.
On
Sunday China rebuffed some of Mr Carter's strong criticism on China's
land reclamation projects in the South China Sea, which he had said were
"out of step" with international rules.
Shangri-La Dialogue: Big powers jostle
Top officials from Singapore, the UK
and EU repeat US calls for China and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean) to adopt a code of conduct in the disputed waters
The US and Australia say they will
continue to patrol what they consider to be international navigation
zones in the South China Sea in spite of Chinese protests at
"provocative moves"
China says it will base a decision to
create an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) - which requires
overflying aircraft to identify themselves - in disputed waters on its
assessment of the security situation.
Tensions rise over China's 'Great Wall of Sand' The
US says that through reclamation China has increased its acreage in the
Spratly island group - also wholly or partly claimed by Taiwan, the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei - by 400 times.
The
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese armed forces, Admiral
Sun Jianguo, said that China's rights and interests there were
"indisputable" but that it was exercising them "with enormous
restraint".
He said China's island-building was about helping the region, by
improving facilities for weather stations, scientific research, and
search-and-rescue among other things.
Despite facing spirited
questioning, he gave little ground, reports the BBC's world affairs
correspondent Jonathan Marcus - and overall little progress was made at
the meeting.
The incident near the hotel on Sunday began when a
car was stopped at a vehicle checkpoint, but then accelerated after the
passengers were asked to open the car boot.
Officers opened fire because the car "was endangering the lives of officers", the police statement said.
No
weapons were found on the three men, but illegal drugs "and an item
believed to be a drug-taking utensil" were found on one of those
detained, police said.
The hotel and surrounding roads were briefly placed on lockdown.
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