SHISHOU, Hubei: Forensic experts and doctors have confirmed Tu Yuangao, a cook at the Yonglong Hotel, whose mysterious death sparked civil unrest here last week, "committed suicide by jumping off a high building", local authorities said yesterday.

Liu Yunchang, a spokesman for the government of Shishou city, Hubei province, said experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Tongji Medical Institute carried out an autopsy, which confirmed he "committed suicide".

Tu's dead body was cremated at 4 am yesterday, he said.