SHANGHAI: Yang Jia, the unemployed Beijing man who killed six police officers and injured four others in a knife attack on July 1 in Shanghai received the death sentence yesterday, the Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court announced.

Yang, 28, was impassive throughout the whole hearing. He did not say before being led out of the courtroom whether or not he would appeal to the Shanghai High People's Court.

The defendant's attorneys, Xie Youming and Xie Jin of the Shanghai Mingjiang Law Office, tried to enter a plea of premeditated injury, asking the court to take into account Yang's mental instability.