BEIJING, Nov 2: A new scientific study has found that China’s second to last emperor died of poison, in what is likely to shore up long-held suspicions that he was murdered, state press reported on Sunday.

The study using modern scientific techniques found lethal doses of arsenic in the hair, bones and clothes of the Qing Dynasty’s (1644-1912) Guangxu Emperor, the China News Service said.

The study was undertaken by China Central Television, the China Atomic Energy Sciences Institute and the forensic laboratory of the Beijing police and will be published in time for the centenary of Guangxu’s Nov 14 death, it said.

Scientists have been collecting evidence from inside the dead emperor’s tomb west of Beijing since 2003, but used a variety of modern techniques to gather samples without opening his casket, the report said.

Lethal amounts of arsenic were found in the areas around the emperor’s stomach, neck and hair, it said.

Guangxu was placed under house arrest in 1898 by his regent and aunt the Empress Dowager after he initiated the “Hundred Days Reform” which sought to modernise China and establish a constitutional monarchy.—AFP