A Prosecutors' Office in Chongqing Municipality has ratified the arrests of two men who allegedly fabricated fake terror information by making threatening telephone calls.
According to Xinhuanet.com, the first incident occurred on Friday afternoon when suspect Gao Siming dialed the police emergency number 110 and claimed he was going to blow up a public bus that he was riding at the time.
Police officers rushed to the scene but did not discover any explosives following a search. Police later found out that the man made the call due to a dispute over bus fare with the conductor, the report said.
Gao was taking a No. 702 bus from Chaotianmeng to Shapingba that afternoon. During the argument with the bus conductor, Gao claimed he had explosives and detonators. According to the report, he threatened to kill the bus conductor. He later shouted to passengers that there were explosives on the bus, the report said.
The other incident took place on Saturday morning when 36-year-old Zheng Xuhua called a general manager of a Chongqing department store and said he was a terrorist and had laid explosives in the building that would detonate in 20 minutes, the report said.
Large groups of police were dispatched to the department store. They immediately evacuated the building as well as blocked access to the area around the store. However, no bombs were found.
Chongqing police caught Zheng that afternoon. The man allegedly told police he came up with the idea to make a threatening call because he was agitated.
Zheng's behavior forced the department store and nearby financial and commercial outlets to close, causing a large economic loss, the report said.
(Shanghai Daily August 7, 2008)