Photo of man on street sparks debate

Eyewitnesses say that the photos of a “robbery and murder scene” outside a Beijing bank that were widely spread online are in fact of an incident in which an elderly man collapsed in the street.

Pictures of a man on the ground surrounded by police officers in front of a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China near Huixin East Bridge, Chaoyang district, were posted on Sina Weibo, the micro-blogging website, on Tuesday morning.

The post quickly attracted interest and become a hot issue after it was forwarded by Wo’ai Beijing, a verified Sina Weibo user.

The initial post said the man had been robbed and murdered and was forwarded nearly 1,000 times as of 5 pm on Tuesday.

But some micro-bloggers who passed by the scene disputed that account, saying that the old man had suddenly fallen ill and the police were simply waiting for the his relatives to arrive.

One of the witnesses, a micro-blogger named Mei Aiwen, forwarded the original news and said the old man might be dead, because he was covered with a sheet and a cardiogram machine was connected to his arm.

In addition, a reporter from Beijing Times commented on the original micro blog post, this was not a murder and the witnesses’ accounts were correct.

The police have not yet replied to a China Daily reporter’s request for information.