Man 'killed by exploding phone' shot himself
Police in China believe a shop-worker said to have been killed by an exploding mobile phone in fact shot himself accidentally with a home-made pistol.
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 10:44AM GMT 05 Feb 2009
Doctors who rushed to the scene of the explosion at a computer salesroom in Guangzhou, north of Hong Kong in southern China, found the man, named as Huang Heping, lying on the floor with a severed artery in his neck.
They found shattered fragments of his mobile phone, which had been in a top pocket, leading to suggestions that its lithium battery had exploded.
Exploding mobile phone batteries have been implicated in previous deaths and injuries, leading to safety advice being published on how to prevent accidents.
But this incident raised doubts, as batteries only overheat when they are being charged or used for long periods, not while they are sitting unused in pockets.
Now police sources have told local newspapers that the mobile phone was an innocent victim in the case. At first, it seemed as if the man was carrying some sort of homemade explosive, traces of which were found on his body.
Further examination at the scene discovered the remnants of what appeared to be a home-made firing device, with nine bullets in a separate bag.
They say they believe the gun went off accidentally after Huang, dropped it, killing him with a single shot to the neck. The phone was also broken, leading to the initial theory which came from those first on the scene.
The original report caused widespread consternation in China, which is in the middle of a panic about "shanzhai" or fake goods. Since the tainted milk scandal which killed at least six babies last year, fake medicines and medical equipment as well as other theoretically less dangerous products have been exposed.
It was feared that the Guangzhou incident might be just the first in a rash of fake battery explosions.
Police have not said why Huang, 45, might have been carrying a home-made gun.
But Guangzhou and its neighbour Shenzhen have notoriously high crime rates for China, and warnings have been sent out that this might get worse in the wake of the economic crisis. The region has lost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs in the last few months.
