A retired teacher has become an unlikely internet hit in China for throwing bricks at cars whose drivers were ignoring red lights at a dangerous crossing, state media reported on Monday.
The furious 74-year-old last week took up position on an intersection in Lanzhou, the capital of northwest Gansu province, and damaged more than 30 cars before he was stopped by police, the China Daily reported.
“I just wanted to catch people’s attention and tell the drivers to think of pedestrians,” the man said, according to the report.
The unnamed man’s attacks drew wide support in Chinese cyberspace, with nearly 80% of 400 000 respondents to an online poll backing him, the English-language paper said.
The ex-teacher became a campaigner for road safety after a pedestrian was killed near where he lived.
He successfully lobbied for traffic lights at the intersection, but drivers continued to ignore them, the report said, citing the Lanzhou Morning Post.
So on Thursday last, he started lobbing bricks at transgressors, and was joined by two other elderly men, while other people found them more bricks and brought water.
He had planned to keep up his vigilante attack for a week but was stopped by police after one day. He was interviewed and released without charge, the paper said.
The reports did not indicate whether any cars were seriously damaged or crashed after being hit.
China’s roads are notoriously dangerous. Last year, nearly 73 500 people died in road accidents in China last year, or more than 200 fatalities per day, according to police statistics. — AFP