A man in his fifties was cycling along Guangzhou Bridge on Monday when he fainted. Although Monday was World Strangers Day, he was ignored by passers-by for 50 minutes and was dead by the time paramedics got to him, Caijing reports.

He was already dead by the time emergency services arrived.

Doctors think the cause of death was heart disease. They say his death could have been averted had paramedics got to him on time. He was a property developer whose physique was particularly robust for his age.

Guangzhou Bridge, which runs over the Pearl River, is busy almost all of the time. So he must have been ignored by a large number of people.

This is set to be another case of members of the public in China ignoring a stranger who is in need.

In the past couple of years, the government has introduced a system of rewarding people who go out of their way to help strangers.