Inspired by action movie, Chinese man bombs bank van in an attempted robbery



Wang Haijian



A man arrested for bombing a bank in China that killed two people and injured 15 others said he was inspired from the plot of a Chinese action movie.

Wang Haijian, 24, is accused of causing the explosion near a branch of the China Construction Bank in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, Dec 1.

Police said Wang and his friends planned to blow up a cash delivery truck, having seen a similar incident in Chinese action movie “The Underdog Knight 2″, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Wang reportedly experimented with homemade explosives and suffered damage to his left eye, lost two teeth and sustained many smaller facial wounds, police said.

His friends quit after the experiments failed but Wang persevered and finally made the explosives.

When he put his plan into practice and detonated the explosives, the cash delivery truck he targeted was undamaged because a private car blocked it, police said.

Police later identified Wang, a native of Zaoyang in Hubei, as the suspect, saying he had been caught on surveillance cameras.

Wang was arrested at the Wuhan General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command when he was sleeping in the waiting room of the hospital after two nurses saw he had five detonators with him and informed the police.

Wang, an air conditioner repairman working in Wuhan, lived in a village in the city's Donghu New Technology Development Zone before the explosion. But the police were unable to find him.

They publicized his photo and offered a 100,000 yuan (RM50,000) reward for information that led to his arrest.

Wang admitted making home-made explosive devices and attempting to rob an armored car by detonating a bomb.

Wang’s parents have apologised to the blast victims.