45 punished over false terror attack rumors
Shanghai Daily, March 7, 2014
False information about terrorist attacks in other Chinese cities after the atrocity in Kunming has resulted in warnings or detention for 45 people, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.
The rumors emerged online after eight knife-wielding attackers ran through crowds at the main railway station in Kunming, capital of the southern Yunnan Province, last Saturday night, killing 29 people and injuring 143. These fabricated stories had created panic and disturbed social order, the ministry said.
Four of the Kunming killers were shot dead by a SWAT officer and a female suspect he wounded was detained.
The three members of the gang who escaped were captured on Monday.
On the same day, a microblogger surnamed Wang, from east China's Zhejiang Province, wrote that "terrorists from Xinjiang had attacked people in Hangzhou, leaving 10 dead and 80 injured." Hangzhou is Zhejiang's provincial capital.
Also on Monday, a web user surnamed Xu, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, posted that "three gangsters with minority nationality accents attacked passers-by in Chengdu with long knives, with one arrested by police."
On Tuesday, a web user surnamed Wang, in central China's Henan Province, posted: "The only terrorist who survived the attack in Kunming confessed that criminal gangs had entered other cities."
The post also warned against going to stations, restaurants, cinemas or other places where crowds gathered.
The ministry said the messages were false and those who started them or spread them have been warned or detained.
It urged the public, rather than believing such rumors and spreading them, to report them to the authorities.
