Law enforcement officials in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said that the police officers responsible for improperly detaining an officer from neighboring Henan province were suspended and will be punished.

The Xi'an public security bureau issued the results of its investigation into the incident on its micro blog on Thursday night. It said the Henan officer was illegally detained for 20 hours at the Baiyuanmen police station in Xi'an.

Li Huifeng, of the Luoyang public security bureau in Henan province, posted an account of the incident online.

He said he had gone to Xi'an with some friends for leisure on July 26. One friend, surnamed Chen, discovered that her mobile phone was missing when she came out of a supermarket.

Li said he called the local police to report the theft. While Li and Chen were waiting for the police, Li caught a female suspect who he said was trying to steal a phone from a pedestrian.

A few minutes later, some Xi'an officers arrived. They took Li, Chen and the suspect to a local police station for interrogation.

Li said that he was unhappy with the cold attitude displayed by one officer, Bai Jinxiang, who was dealing with the case, and said a vulgar word as he was leaving the station. He said Bai then forcibly stopped him from leaving and put him in a room with the phone theft suspect.

Li said in the post that he was detained from 9 pm on July 26 to 5 pm on July 27, and had to sit on the floor without food or water.

This week, as Li's story began to draw attention online, the Xi'an police micro blog said Bai and Lyu Yong, the deputy chief of the station who was on duty the night of the incident, were ordered to stop work and placed under investigation.

An investigation group was set up to deal with the case, the micro blog said.

malie@chinadaily.com.cn