The UN arms inspector who was killed Thursday in a road accident south of Baghdad is a Chinese chemical expert, a diplomat from the Chinese Embassy said Friday.
Yu Jianxing, 38, died Thursday afternoon from wounds caused by the accident, said the diplomat who requested anonymity.
His colleague, an inspector from Slovakia who was driving the car, was also injured, he added.
Meanwhile, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing on Friday confirmed that a Chinese inspector was killed in the car accident in Iraq.
The spokesman said the ministry was informed of the accident Thursday night.
A UN official said late Thursday both UN inspectors were seriously wounded when their car smashed into "a slow moving truck" a few minutes before 2:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) on the highway from Kut, 168 km south of Baghdad, to the capital.
The two inspectors were rushed to the Rashid military hospital in Baghdad by a UN helicopter following "immediate medical assistance" from the accompanying medic for the UN arms experts.
One of them was pronounced dead soon after their arrival at the hospital, and the another is listed in "stable condition," the official added.
The two inspectors were on their way back to their headquarters in Baghdad after inspecting the al-Noamaniya tomato canning factory, 50 km south of Baghdad, according to a statement issued by Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, the liaison with the UN inspectors.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2003)
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