Would Be Jumper Gets A Push In China

A man threatening to jump off a bridge in order to kill himself in China got a little help from a frustrated retired soldier.

Chen Fuchao had been holding up traffic in Guangzhou for hours as police were negotiating with him not to jump. One man, Lai Jiansheng,66, got tried of waiting for the man's 'selfish activity' to come to a conclusion. Mr. Lai approached the man and then pushed him off the bridge Thursday night. Mr. Chen fell 8 meters onto an air cushion. Lai was taken away by the police for his actions. Chen had told police that he was $293,000 in debt. For five hours police were talking with the man as traffic backed up. Lai had offered to help talk the man turn but soldiers turned him away. He then broke through the police cordon, climbed the bridge to where Chen was, gave him a handshake and then pushed the troubled man off the bridge. BBC reports:

"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish," the newspaper quoted Mr Lai as saying.

"Their action violates a lot of public interests. They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."

Chen suffered spine and elbow injuries in the fall. He is now in a Guangzhou recovering. Since the beginning of April there have been 12 people who have threatened to jump off of the bridge. None of the 12 have jumped but the negotiations with each has held up traffic for hours. AP reports that Lai was on route to hospital for medication for a 'mental illness' when Chen stopped traffic.