Reportedly missing Interpol president resigns amid China investigation

Interpol says a Chinese official who was reported missing has resigned as head of the international police agency. The update came after Beijing announced Meng Hongwei was under investigation in China.

Interpol said Sunday night that Meng had resigned as president of the agency's executive committee, effectively immediately. It did not say why or how he contacted them to resign.

Meng is China's vice minister of public security. His whereabouts and status have been mysteries since his wife reported Friday that she had not heard from him since he went to China at the end of September.

The disciplinary organ of China's ruling Communist Party said Sunday night that Meng is "currently under the monitoring and investigation" of China's new anti-corruption body for unspecified legal violations.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said the senior vice-president of its executive committee, Kim Jong-yang of South Korea, would become acting president.

Meng's wife said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to their native China.

Making her first public comments on the mystery surrounding his whereabouts, Grace Meng told reporters in Lyon on Sunday she thinks the knife was her husband's way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

She said she has had no further contact with him since the message sent on Sept. 25. She said four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying, "Wait for my call."

But she said she hadn't heard from him since, and didn't know what happened to him.