CHINA> Society
Students caught cutting Christmas tree in city
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-07 13:31

Three secondary technical school students were detained after cutting down a cypress in a local park for a Christmas tree in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

The teenagers were caught transporting the cypress back to their school. They took the 2 m high, 20 cm diameter tree from the city's Sanjiao Park.

The students said they felled the tree, which they planned to put in their classroom as a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, because they had no money to buy one.

The park administrators said the cypress was worth over 1,000 yuan ($146).

The students were later released after getting a lecture at a nearby police station.

(Dahe News)