A 42-year-old unlicensed motorcyclist died of brainstem hemorrhage in Beijing Monday after being held by staff of the Daxing district urban administration, known as chengguan, the administration has said.

A police officer surnamed Wang from Daxing police told METRO yesterday the investigation is still under way and they are waiting for the results of a postmortem examination. He declined to give further details.

Zhu Hefang, from Henan province, was stopped by staff of the Daxing urban administration at 10 am on Monday. Zhu was waiting to pick up customers as a motorcycle taxi driver with four others parked near a newsstand on Longhe road, Daxing district.

Chen Kejian, in charge of discipline with Daxing urban administration, told METRO the area is a favorite for unlicensed taxi drivers.

All other drivers managed to escape after spotting an urban administration patrol car, but Zhu was caught.

The Beijing News quoted a witness as saying Zhu was forced to leave his motorcycle and pushed into a patrol car. His motorcycle was also confiscated by another administration vehicle.

The vehicle holding Zhu then took a two-hour drive back to the administration base, allowing Zhu to leave it only once to collect his motorcycle keys.

At around 12:30 pm on Oct 26, Zhu's family received a call from the urban administration saying an unconscious Zhu had been sent to the Daxing People's Hospital.

Zhu died at around 3:40 pm as a result of a brainstem hemorrhage, the Beijing News reported yesterday

When Zhu's family arrived at the hospital they found blood and bruises on the corpse. Zhu's brother said he suspected Zhu might be beaten in the patrol car, leading to his death, the Beijing News reported.

METRO tried to contact the family of the driver yesterday but was a refused comment.

However, an inside source who does not want to be named, told METRO the family might want to settle with Daxing urban administration privately and push for compensation.

Wu Gang, a professor in the Beijing Administration College and an expert in urban administration matters, said, "It is not yet possible to judge whether the urban administration officials abused Zhu or not."

"But for urban administrations, the investigations and punishments for illegal taxis and motorcycles are the most difficult cases to handle and frequently leads to conflict," Wu added.