Story By: Scott Feng, Sub-Editor: Jamie King, Agency: Asia Wire Report

A police officer has lost part of his little finger after it was bitten off by an enraged street cleaner whose pedicab he was about to confiscate.

An image of officer Li Bin’s severed right little finger shows the cleaner surnamed Xing, 59, having bitten off his distal phalanx – the topmost segment of bone on the digit.

The incident which has resulted in the suspect’s arrest happened in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province in Central China, in the morning of 10th December.

Picture Credits: AsiaWire 

Officer Li was assisting traffic policeman Liu Zhifeng when they came across the sanitation worker and his electric pedicab, which authorities say was not road legal.

Liu said: “Officers seized his vehicle, but he stood in front of us to prevent it from being taken away.

“While trying to subdue him, he bit the officer’s hand and ripped off one of his fingers – the right pinky.”

Images show the street cleaner lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back.

When asked why he bit the officer’s finger off, he said: “He didn’t let me go, so why wouldn’t I bite him?”

He added: “He was taking away my livelihood, so why wouldn’t I bite him?”

Xie Shuqiang, with Zhengzhou Renji Hospital, said of the policeman’s injury: “It’s pretty serious. We still need to see whether it can be reattached.”

The street cleaner faces obstruction of justice charges.