It happened Thursday afternoon at the 18th annual Shenzhen High-Tech Fair, where much of the country’s newest technology gets put on display.

A robot nicknamed “Little Tubby” is being blamed for getting out of control and smashing a glass display case and injuring a person who had to be taken to hospital on a stretcher.

Net News Broadcast reported that the robot “unexpectedly acted under its own volition”, but officials at the fair are blaming the incident on a worker who mishandled the controls.

Little Tubby is described as a learning aide for children between the ages of four and 12. It debuted at a world robot conference last year. At the same expo, a robot capable of killing a human being was also put on display.

Robots have increasingly become more prominent in Chinese society, used as waitresses in restaurants, performing medical procedures, taking orders at fast food restaurants, used as valet parking, and replacing workers in factories.

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The force of impact caused wide-scale damage to apartments in the surrounding neighborhood in the town of Xinmin, blowing out windows and doors. The ad hoc living quarters where the blast occurred has completely disintegrated, leaving behind a 4 meter-diameter crater.

Ninety-four people were injured. Fortunately there was a hospital next door, unfortunately it was so damaged it was unable to accept the large volume of injured people. Residents had to flag down passing cars to get rides to other nearby hospitals.

Victims were seen walking around in a daze with bleeding head injuries, while the surrounding area looks like a war zone. Rescue attempts are still underway with reports saying more victims are trapped under the wreckage.

The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined. However, Caijing reports that local residents say the explosion may have been caused by a secret stash of explosives that was being kept in the basement of the temporary living quarters.

Earlier this month, a five story living unit that collapsed in Wenzhou, Zhejiang that killed over 20 people was determined to have been built by migrant workers who relocated there.

The post Shaanxi Explosion Kills 7 in Residential Neighborhood appeared first on The Nanfang.

The woman was flung with such force that she broke three bars of the steel railing surrounding the ride, breaking a vertabrae in her lower back. The boy, also flung, was bleeding from the nose and ears after hitting his head on the ground.

Both victims were sent to hospital for medical treatment. They are currently in stable but serious condition with non-life threatening injuries.

Called the “Giant Octopus”, the amusement ride is located in the city’s Zhongshan Park.

Bystander Miss Liu described the scene of the incident:

After the child was flung outside the fence, he was crying heavily, but remained motionless on the ground. The mother was dazed for a number of seconds, and then sat herself upright against the fence.

Miss Ding, the woman’s cousin, said that the ride “seemed to run faster than any other time before” while they were on it. Reports say the only safety device onboard the “Giant Octopus” is a safety bar held across the riders’ lap.

This isn’t the first injury to occur at an amusement park this year. This past Labor Day, two people died when five riders on a ride called “Crazy Scream” in Zhejiang were thrown off. Back in April, 19 people were injured after being thrown off an amusement ride at a temple fair in Henan.

Here are more photographs from the incident:

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It has crossed our minds anytime we enter a creaky old elevator in China: is this thing safe? They almost universally are, but not always, as 12 people in Shenyang found out last week.

A group of staff from a media company got into the elevator in their office building when it suddenly came loose and started free-falling. It plunged 12 floors, injuring everyone on board.

Five victims remain in hospital with serious injuries, mostly broken bones. One victim has lost feeling to the lower part of his body.

Miss Li, who was in the elevator, gave this terrifying account of the fall:

At that time, the elevator began to sway back and forth with a banging sound as it descended while sparks began to appear from the elevator door. Then the ceiling and the fluoroescent lights began to collapse upon us, hitting the heads of some of the taller co-workers in the elevator, making them collapse to the floor. Wires from the ceiling fell down, snaring themselves around my head and neck. Everything in front of me turned dark…

Li said that upon impact, the ceiling completely fell upon the victims, trapping them. However, since the elevator doors were sealed shut, the victims were only able to escape from the elevator once rescuers arrived at the scene.

Elevator repairmen who arrived later said the elevator has been in operation for 15 years, and has had problems before. In fact, Miss Li said the elevator was already malfunctioning the day before on July 14:

At that time, we were very afraid. At the earliest moment, we contacted the property management using the elevator’s emergency telephone. But upon being notified, the worker with the property management didn’t appear to be very urgent about it. From this point alone, it appeared that elevator malfunctions is a regular occurrence for the property management that they’ve gotten used to.

Property management has already forwarded RMB 300,000 to be used towards the victims’  medical fees.

Elevators are normally extremely safe. Modern elevators are equipped with a number of fail-safes that are supposed to keep elevator passengers safe in case of any catastrophic situation, such as power failure or cable malfunction. Safety measures include a multiple set of cables, emergency brakes, and counterweights.

Related:

• Trapped in a Crowded Elevator, Chinese Passengers Use the Tools at Hand
• Shenzhen pledges to improve elevator safety after price war causes accidents

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The child, who was accompanied by three adults, was visiting the Bifeng Gorge scenic area in the city of Ya’an. Despite clearly marked signs which read: “For your own safety, please do not put your hand inside the steel barrier!“, the child put his arm through the fence and was bitten.

The boy’s arm was severed at the elbow, and according to doctors at the Chuanda Huaxi Hospital, could not be re-attached. The zoo has since constructed another wire barrier to prevent future accidents.

Unfortunately, lax security at Chinese zoos seems to lend itself to these sorts of accidents. Last October, a nine year-old Henan boy had his arm torn-off after he climbed a fence in order to feed a black bear. The family is now seeking 1.6 million yuan in compensation. While in December 2013, a seven year-old girl had her finger bitten off when trying to feed a monkey at a zoo in Anshun, Guizhou. And in November 2009, a nine year-old boy in Hengshui, Hebei had his right hand bitten off by a black bear when he stuck his arm inside its cage to feed it a carrot.

The post White Tiger Mauls 2-Year-Old Boy At Sichuan Zoo appeared first on The Nanfang.

A temple fair in Henan turned chaotic yesterday as riders were thrown off an amusement ride that broke in half, injuring 19 people.

The incident happened at the Tonghe Temple in Changyuan County, Xinxiang at around 5:30pm. One rider sustained serious injuries from a leg fracture, while the other 18 have light injuries that are non-life threatening.

As seen in photographs, the mechanism of the “Outer Space Flying Saucer” ride somehow became separated from the chasis that is supposed to hold it in place. Riders are seen slumped in their seats, still held there by safety restraints.

The owner of the amusement ride has been arrested  by police, and the ride itself shut down.

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The bus was rented out by a Zhengzhou opera troupe on tour in the province. It appeared to be operating legally, and the passenger load was within the bus’ capacity.

An investigation into the crash is underway.

The post 20 Dead as Bus Plunges Off 100 Meter Cliff in Henan appeared first on The Nanfang.

Increased crowds on the Beijing subway are being blamed for the death of a woman when she became trapped between the platform safety doors and train doors when the train pulled out of the station.

It happened yesterday at 7:05pm at Huixinxijie Nankou Station on the Beijing Metro Line 5, which is a busy interchange station with Line 10.

Eyewitness Miss Zhou described what she saw:

A woman was trapped between the safety doors and the doors to the train. She was stuck there as the subway began to move. After the train left the station, the woman fell to the platform.

The 33-year old Hebei woman was taken to hospital where the doctor on duty said the woman had a pulse and was breathing. The doctor said the woman had no visible injuries at first glance, but suffered from bruising and broken bones:

“Her chest had become all soft, so it is evident that she was trapped by the doors in that spot.”

She died of her injuries in hospital.

A similar incident happened a few years ago in Shanghai, when a young woman was also trapped between the doors as the train started moving. Eyewitnesses on the platform described the scene as harrowing.

There are more people riding the subway in Beijing this week because of car restrictions related to the APEC summit.

Photos: People’s Daily Online, China Daily, Yangcheng Evening Report

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An unidentified student is dead after an elevator crushed him at a campus building at Huaqiao University in Xiamen, Fujian Province, reports Sohu Video.

The accident happened on September 14, the first day of school. The student entered the elevator and it began to move, while the doors were open and he was only halfway inside. The elevator put enormous pressure on him for 35 minutes. Rescue workers say the student was dead when they arrived. It’s believed the elevator crushed the man’s lungs.

Related:

• Scary: Elevator in Shenzhen plummets 16 floors, strands passengers for over an hour
• 1 dead after bizarre elevator and Metro accidents occur on the same day in SZ
• Shenzhen pledges to improve elevator safety after price war causes accidents
• Nurse dies in gruesome accident after elevator plunges in Shenzhen

Photo: Sina Video

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[This post contains content which may be upsetting to some readers]

A chef in Foshan, Guangdong has been killed by the Thailand king cobra he was preparing for a meal when it bit him long after its head was cut off, reports China Daily. Some reports say the head had been severed for 10 minutes when the bite occurred, with other reports saying 20 minutes had passed.

The victim has been identified as Peng Fan from Shunde. He was working in an unidentified restaurant that serves poisonous snakes to customers. Peng was throwing out the decapitated snake head when he was bit.

“It is a highly unusual case but it appears to be just an accident,” a police spokesman said. “He prepared the snake himself and was just unlucky. There was nothing that could be done to save the man. Only the anti-venom could have helped but this was not given in time. It was just a tragic accident.”

One news report used the incident to look more closely at the dangers posed by severed snake heads. It shows how snakes continue to move after having their heads separated from their body. This video goes to a a snake farm where several snakes have their heads cut off:

Earlier this month, an online community was outraged because they suspected a Shenzhen woman released live poisonous snakes into a local park.

Southern China is home to 35 types of snakes that are venomous. These include the Chinese cobra, the king cobra, Fea’s viper, and Russell’s viper.

Photo: Daily Mail

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