Four suspects who were captured amid the syringe attack scare in Urumqi have been prosecuted for endangering public security, local procuratorate said Saturday.

The four, all from the Uygur ethnic group, were involved in three cases, said Wutkur Abdurahman, procurator general of the city's procuratorate.

Muhutaerjiang Turdi, a 34-year-old man, and Aimannisha Guli, a 22-year-old woman, threatened a taxi driver with a syringe and robbed him of 710 yuan (US$104) on Aug. 29. The two were seeking money to buy drugs.

The woman was captured on the same day of the robbery and the man surrendered to police three days after, said the procurator general.

In another case, a man named Yilipan Yilihamu, 19, was captured on Aug. 28, hours after a woman reported to police that she was stabbed at a roadside fruit stall. Yilipan confessed to police that he inserted a pin into the woman's buttock.

Akbar Imin, a 47-year-old man, injured police when he resisted arrest with a syringe that contained drug on Aug. 31. The procurator general did not say how many police officers were injured in the case.

Wutkur Abdurahman said the procuratorate has also approved the arrest of four other suspects.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2009)