The mayor of South Korea's second-largest city, who is on trial for allegedly taking $85,000 in bribes, hanged himself in his jail cell, a prison official said Wednesday.

Busan Mayor Ahn Sang-young, 64, was found early Wednesday hanging from a rope made with undershirts, the official at Busan Detention House said on customary condition of anonymity.

Ahn had been arrested in October on charges of taking $85,500 in bribes from a construction company in return for business favors. He was in the prison's medical ward because of digestive problems.

Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence.

Ahn was elected to his second four-year term as mayor of Busan in 2002. Prosecutors were also investigating allegations that he took $28,500 from another business.

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