TWO Shenzhen children were hospitalized in two separate incidents late Wednesday night after being hit by empty bottles falling from high-rise buildings.
Xiao Nong, the son of a storekeeper in Meilin, Futian District, was playing in front of the family store at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when a pesticide bottle fell from a fourth-floor balcony and hit his head.
Police said a woman in her 20s living in Meilinxincun was to blame. The woman said she was hanging clothes to dry on her balcony when she carelessly knocked down the bottle.
“She could have put the bottle in a plastic bag and take precautions,” Xiao Nong’s mother was quoted by the Shenzhen Economic Daily as saying Saturday. The two sides are negotiating compensation. Neighborhood residents said bottles and cans often fall from balconies in that area.
Also Wednesday night, a 1-year-old was rushed to hospital after a bottle of toilet cleaner hit his head. The boy’s parents were outside a supermarket in Nanyuan Village of Nanshan District when the accident occurred. Local police are still investigating the case.
The most serious accident of this kind involved a falling window pane which claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy May 31 last year. The boy’s father took all 73 apartment owners of the Haolaiju Building in Nanshan District to court. A verdict is yet to be handed down, as no one has claimed responsibility for the broken glass that hit the boy. (Li Dan, Shenzhen Daily)