Society
Man who broadcast suicide bid on Internet rescued
By Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-29 08:43
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A 27-year-old Sichuan province resident who went online to describe his feelings after consuming a deadly chemical in a suicide attempt on Wednesday has been rescued and is recovering at a hospital in Ya'an, an official of the local public security bureau said Thursday.
Hundreds of netizens who read the live posts persuaded the man to give up the attempt to die and rush to a hospital.
"Since 3 am on Wednesday, we received hundreds of calls from people, telling us to find the man and save him," Deng Yaling, chief of Ya'an police told China Daily, adding that it took his officers two hours to track down the man.
"When we reached the man's house at 5 am, his family had already taken him to the hospital," Deng said.
It is still unknown why he wanted to end his life, Deng added.
In his posts, the man said he wanted to end his life because he was "unable to overcome the past and the pain was too much to bear".
"My existence only bothers everyone around me, and there is nothing that interests me," he said in his post, adding that describing what the drug he had consumed was doing to him was the only meaningful thing left to do.
He said he started consuming the nasty tasting chemical mixed with Coke at about 9 pm on Tuesday, and he had consumed all of it by midnight.
He said he could not feel his teeth and tongue.
At 3:15 am, a netizen, who goes by the pseudo name "Tiemian" tracked down the IP address of the man's computer and posted that he was located in Ya'an, asking locals to call 110 to for help.
A netizen called "Wunannan" posted: "If you die, you will die depressed. What's more, your families will be in pain all their lives."
Until Thursday, nearly 1 million netizens had viewed the post, with thousands leaving messages, hoping he was saved.
"It is surprising to see that so many people were calling to save a person they did not know at all," Deng said.
But the employees at Tianya.cn are not surprised at all. "It just shows that love is growing in the cyber world. Millions of netizens are always there and ready to help any one in need," a staff from Tianya, who would not be named, told China Daily.
Nearly 33 million people across the country regularly visit the Tianya forum, according to the latest figure from the cyber community.
