A man was shot in the head in a clash between two gangs at the junction of Wuning and Changshou roads in Putuo district of Shanghai around 12:30 pm on Friday, police said.

A witness told China Daily that an argument between, what he later realized were, two gang members turned violent. And one of them shouted, "give us back the money" before the shot was fired.

The daylight shooting just a 10-min walk away from the municipal public security bureau has sent shockwaves through the city.

The last time Shanghai witnessed a shooting on the streets was in July 2002, when a gang fired five shots at another, injuring two persons.

"I heard two shots ... then saw three men speed away a in silver-gray car with a Jiangsu number plate ... driven by a woman," said Zhou Xinwen, who works at a nearby barbershop. "All the men were wearing sunglasses and one of them was holding a shotgun."

One of the three men who fled in the car reportedly shot the victim, who has been admitted to the intensive care unit of Huadong Hospital.

The gun looked like a "fake ... as if it was made locally", Zhou said. "And the man with the gun was injured in the right arm ... but I'm not sure whether it was a bullet wound."

Zhou's colleague Li Bing claimed to have seen the two gangs, of about 10 people, arguing before one of them fired. "All of them except the one shot in the head fled immediately," he said.

But an employee of a nearby printing firm said all the three men were holding guns when they fled the scene.

Chinese law prohibits private ownership of guns. But the shooting has exposed the loopholes in the arms control system, said Qiu Baochang, a lawyer with Beijing Huijia Law Firm.

Qiu conceded, though, that it was quite difficult to check the sale of illegally made guns. It's not very difficult to make a gun if a person has money and can source the necessary raw materials such as ammunition and detonator.

"Hence, the government should strengthen control over material sourcing immediately instead of just raiding hideouts and homes to seize illegal firearms."

"We should mobilize the public, too, by offering rewards and police protection to anyone who reports suspicious cases," he said.

(China Daily May 23, 2009)