NANCHANG: A ball bearing fired from a starting pistol sliced through the air at a technical school last Thursday, claiming the life of an 18-year-old student, local police said on Monday.

Cheng Liang, a student at a technical training school in Yichun, East China's Jiangxi Province, died after being hit in the temple by a steel ball fired from the barrel of a starting pistol that some of his classmates were playing with.

One of the boys, surnamed Huang, accidentally fired the fatal shot, the police told the Xinhua News Agency yesterday.

The victim was immediately sent to hospital, but died a day later because his brainstem had been damaged.

The gun was not the school's property, police said. Another student, surnamed Zhou, who was also playing with the gun at the time the shot was fired, had allegedly found it in the street and brought it to class. His teachers did not see the gun before the accident.

'Just for a show'

Zhou said he had just pulled the gun out to show his classmates when it went off.

Police have detained both Zhou and Huang and the investigation into the incident is ongoing. Police believe the shooting was accidental.

The victim had become a student at Yinchuan Vocational School only last year. His parents came to the school yesterday and asked for compensation, Xinhua reported. The school has 400 teachers and 1,1500 students.

Campus safety has been a major concern in the past year, as the number of accidents and crimes involving students has been increasing.

Last June a girl at the Jiangxi Fashion Institute in Nanchang, the provincial capital, hacked her roommate after the two quarrelled over their favourite candidates on the "Supergirls" television contest.

The victim almost died and was left with more than 20 scars, said a report by the local Metropolitan Times.

(China Daily 01/17/2007 page5)