Chongqing gov't shuts down Internet bar involved in teenager deaths

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 09, 2004

Chongqing gov't shuts down Internet bar involved in teenager deaths

Local authorities in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, shut down an unlicensed Internet bar involved in the death of two teenager Internet surfers, the government said Thursday.

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Local authorities in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, shut down an unlicensed Internet bar involved in the death of two teenager Internet surfers, the government said Thursday.

The Industrial and Commercial Administration of Shapingba District, where the bar was located, confiscated five computers and illegal gains by Ou Zheng, the boss of the unregistered bar.

The two junior middle school students were crushed to death by a train on March 31 when they fell asleep on the train track aftersurfing the Internet for over 48 hours in the bar.

Ou was also fined 30,000 yuan (3,600 US dollars) for his illegal operation of the unlicensed bar, according to the administration.

During the accident, another Internet-addicted student Luo Hua was awakened by the train and narrowly escaped the tragedy, according to Li Bo, director of the district bureau of culture, radio and television, one of the local watchdogs over Internet services.

Following the accident, the government set up a joint investigation team of police, the administration, the bureau and other relevant governmental departments.

Fourteen-year-old Xiong Hai, Wang Dong and Luo Hua were juniorsin Huilongba Township Middle School in Chongqing. The three boys were sleeping on the train track after wearily leaving an Internetbar where they had been playing the Korean online game "Legend II"for over 48 hours.

Xiong Hai had been playing the game non-stop for 72 hours and Wang Dong for 48 hours before their death, recalled Luo Hua.

They had planned to walk along the railway back to Xiong's hometo sleep there.

Internet bars appeared in the rural Huilongba Town a year ago as a result of increasing restrictions over Internet bar services in the downtown city. Many of the bars, attracting students to surf online around-the-clock, were not officially approved for operation and therefore moved to rural areas to escape inspections,according to officials of the investigation team.

Source: Xinhua

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