Three Chinese police officers, who were wounded in a dramatic gunfight on Sunday with a group of alleged drug traffickers in southwestern Yunnan Province, are in a stable condition, according to the local government.

The three injured officers have been transferred to the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture hospital from Yijiang County hospital, where the clash occurred, and will undergo surgery in the next two weeks, said an official with the prefecture's publicity office who declined to give his name.

The gunfight occurred at about 3:00 PM on Sunday in Zhina Town, which borders Myanmar, when the officers, from Dehong Prefecture and neighboring Baoshan City, were carrying out a surveillance operation. Three police officers were killed in a hail of bullets and three others injured.

Local police are hunting for the drug traffickers who escaped after the gunfight, said the official, but he refused to give details of the suspects.

The families of the injured have arrived at the hospital to take care of them and the local government has compensated the families of the dead officers.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)