- A steelworker was caught on surveillance camera jumping into a blast furnace in China, local police have reported
- Steel furnace temperatures can be between 900 oC to 1300 oC (1600 oF to 2300 oF)
- The man had allegedly accrued large financial losses trading in stocks, his colleagues said
A worker at a steel manufacturing plant in China has died by suicide when he jumped into a blast furnace after allegedly losing large sums of money on the stock market, local police said.
The clip is from a recording of a surveillance camera at the Baogang Group, a steelmaker in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.
According to a statement issued by the company on Tuesday, Wang Long, a 34-year-old worker at the group’s steel pipe branch, went missing last Wednesday, March 24, when he was on night duty. The company organised workers to search for him.
“We feel deeply sorry for his death. We are proactively appeasing the emotions of his family and carrying out psychological guidance for our workers,” the company said in the statement.
After investigating the case police ruled out murder and determined the cause of death as suicide.
In the short video, Wang is seen taking off his safety helmet and gloves and places them on the ground, and then hesitating for several minutes before jumping into the furnace containing molten steel.
“He just disappeared instantly,” a worker who has seen the surveillance tape told the Xiaoxiang Morning Post.
Wang’s colleagues said he had been trading stocks and futures for a long time. Police said they now believe Wang took his own life because he had a high level of loan debt which he was unable to repay. Wang reportedly lost over 60,000 yuan (US$9,130) alone on Wednesday on the stock market.
In April of last year, a 47-year-old man died by suicide when he jumped from a high-rise building in a hospital in Putian of Fujian. Police said in a statement that he had lost over a million yuan (US$152,000) on the stock market.
Internet users have been discussing Wang’s death on social media platform Weibo, with the topic having been mentioned more than 45 million times.
“As a leek (synonym for individual stock investors in China) like him, I sympathise with him,” one person commented.
“Life is precious. What a pity that he lost his life at such a young age!”, another person wrote.
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