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Police detain six rumor mongers in Kunming

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-01 22:23

Police have penalized six people for making up rumors and deliberately inciting panic by spreading false information on the Internet about the two bus bombings in Kunming last month.

Two people were detained for five days and four others were reprimanded, said the Public Security Bureau in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province on Friday.

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A statement from the bureau said the penalties were handed down in accordance with the national Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security.

Two explosions killed two people and injured 14 on July 21 in Kunming.

The bureau said police found a 20-year-old telecommunications worker surnamed Zhang had posted an article on the Internet on July 14, depicting how to make a time bomb. Zhang admitted he had done it "out of curiosity".

On July 21, just after the explosions, fabricated pictures of a woman with a bloodied face and an injured man on a stretcher, with captions saying they were caught at the blast scenes, were posted on the QQ website.

Police reprimanded two men and one woman for publishing the pictures.

On July 22, police detained a 23-year-old man surnamed Wang for five days on charges of spreading false information that police were seeking three men of Hui ethnic group as suspects.

On July 24, a 20-year-old man surnamed Wen claimed he knew who had caused the explosions, but police later found that Wen spread the rumor "because his girlfriend had left him".

Police warned that anyone who intentionally disrupted public order by spreading rumors, made false reports on emergency situations or sounded false alarms could face up to 10 days in detention or a 500-yuan fine.

Kunming security authorities have tripled their reward to 300,000 yuan (43,500 U.S. dollars) for information on the two blasts, but no helpful information had been received, said police.

Kunming police also denied the claims by a Uygur separatist group that it took credit for a series of attacks in different Chinese cities, including the bus blasts, saying there was no evidence connecting the bus explosions to terrorist attacks.

The investigation is continuing.