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Crowd beats man after rescue of infant

By Huang Zhiling (China Daily/Asianewsphoto)
Updated: 2009-07-09 08:44

CHENGDU: More than 100 people reportedly attacked a man after he threatened to jump from a high-rise window along with his two-year-old daughter in Sichuan province.

Hu Binjun, 34, had earlier hung his daughter out of his eighth-floor window for several minutes, according to witnesses.

"He deserved the beating because he was so inhumane to his own child," said a woman at the scene.

Firefighter Chen Long grabs a two-year-old girl from her father, Hu Binjun, who allegedly took drugs before attempting to commit suicide with his child by jumping from a window in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Tuesday, July 7, 2009. [Asianewsphoto]

The incident happened at a residential building in eastern Chengdu on Tuesday at 8 am, reportedly after Hu had quarreled with his wife, Wang Xingxin, about his alleged drug use.

Chen Long, the leader of a team of firefighters sent to the scene, said he urged Hu to be calm in the interests of the child before deciding to try to snatch the girl by force.

"But when I slid from the ninth floor to the eighth, the man was alerted. He jumped into the bedroom but placed the baby upside down outside the window," Chen said.

Firefighters in the apartment diverted Hu's attention while Chen slid down to the eighth floor and rescued the baby.

"When the man jumped onto the windowsill and was about to jump off the building, I pushed the window and cops inside the bedroom were quick enough to capture him," Chen said.

When the man was taken out of the building, onlookers attacked him, despite the best efforts of about a dozen police officers.

Hu and Wang moved to Chengdu from Wanzhou in eastern Sichuan a month ago.

"We got married three years ago. My husband was very kind to me and our daughter," Wang said.

Hu, a former bus driver, is currently unemployed and started recently taking drugs, which led to quarrels, she said.

On Monday evening, Hu took drugs. Wang said she complained and told him he would eventually become mentally unbalanced.

The quarrel escalated on Tuesday morning, said a staff member with the building's property management section.

Wang said her husband became delusional after taking drugs and believed someone had threatened him with a gun. 

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