Explosion sends Chinese boy flying after he throws firecracker down manhole

Chinese New Year is approaching, and while many families in China gather to kick the new year off with a bang, it would appear one kid took the saying literally.

Whilst on holiday, an eight-year-old boy in Dunhuang, China, stuck a lit firecracker through the edges of a manhole cover on a street and landed himself in the hospital after an explosion sent him flying into the air.

Surveillance cameras captured the moment of the explosion on Jan 10. The force of the blast sent the child flying into the air before he landed next to the manhole. Fortunately, the manhole cover crashed down several metres away from the boy and shattered into several pieces.

An elderly passer-by who heard the sound of the blast had thought a heating pipe had burst. When he checked out the area, he was greeted with the sight of the child laying on the ground.

After wiping the blood off the boy's mouth, he yelled for his wife to help find the child's parents. When he got no response, the man quickly carried the child away and took him to Dunhuang Hospital for treatment.

Despite increased warnings, such accidents have continued to happen. Over the past few years, there have been several reports of children throwing lit firecrackers into septic systems and causing explosions in China. Septic tanks contain methane gas which is flammable and combustible.

In 2017, two women and a child were severely injured after the youngster slipped a lit firecracker into an underground septic tank despite warning signs, causing the street to rupture, burying them in concrete rubble.

Another boy was sent flying after pulling the same stunt in 2018.

Last year, a similar accident tore up the pavement and damaged several cars, but the boy who set off the explosion escaped unscathed.

rainercheung@asiaone.com