Rumors?that serial killer Zhou Kehua is still alive were dismissed by police in Chongqing yesterday.

The rumors began after police closed access to the southwest municipality's Gele Mountain.

The online rumors claim that the killer must still be at large in the mountain area where police and military personnel had been searching before his final shootout with police.

However, police said they were just searching for any hideouts Zhou may have used for further clues to the killer's activities.

Chongqing authorities, meanwhile, said the closure of the mountain was "for the prevention of mountain and forest fires in the hot season."

Zhou, 42, once China's most wanted man, died in a Chongqing alley on the morning of August 14 in an exchange of fire with police officers.

The gunman, who had killed 11 people over the past eight years, usually targeted people who had withdrawn large sums of money from banks. Police confirmed Zhou's identity after a DNA test.

The two officers who shot Zhou dead told reporters they had resumed their normal duties.

Answering questions as to why their police numbers didn't match the ones they were wearing when interviewed on television after the shooting, they said those uniforms had been borrowed from colleagues. They had been in plain clothes during the hunt for the man once described as the country's most dangerous fugitive.

Meanwhile, the questioning of Zhou's girlfriend Zhang Guiying, 20, is continuing.

Zhou is said to have phoned her before and after each robbery and lawyers say she could face the death penalty if she is found to be the mastermind behind Zhou's criminality.

Zhou is said to have spent the money he stole on Zhang and on his family - an ex-wife and son.

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