A resident in his or her late 70s in China has drawn public criticism after cutting a section of a safety rope used by a worker on the exterior wall of a high-rise building, saying they needed a line to hang laundry.
Worker Descends From 30th Floor, Finds Rope Cut
According to the South China Morning Post on the 30th, the incident occurred on the 17th at a high-rise building in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China.
Liu, a worker repairing the building's exterior wall, began work on the 30th floor and discovered that one of the safety ropes had been severed after descending to the second floor. More than 10 meters of the roughly 120-meter rope had been cut away, and pieces of the severed rope were left nearby.
As a result, Liu was unable to complete the descent to the first floor. Because no one was working on the rope when it was damaged, the incident did not lead to a fall or other accident.
The person who cut the rope was identified as a resident in their late 70s living on the second floor of the building. Their gender was not disclosed. The resident claimed they had not known it was safety equipment used for work on high-rise exterior walls and had cut it because they needed a line for hanging laundry.
Liu did not report the case to police, taking the resident's advanced age into account. He later discussed the matter with the building's management company and demanded 400 yuan (about 80,000 won) in compensation for the damaged rope.
Post Draws More Than 61 Million Views
Criticism poured in online in China after the case became known. Related posts have drawn more than 61 million views.
Internet users responded with comments such as "This is not something to let go just because no one was hurt" and "This is no different from attempted murder." Some also said Liu's decision not to report the case to police was excessively lenient.
A local legal expert said that arbitrarily cutting and taking away another person's rope could be considered an infringement of property rights. The expert added that if the damage to the rope halted work and caused additional losses, separate compensation could be sought.
China has seen cases in which damage to safety ropes led to actual falls. In December 2017, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, a man who had been in conflict with a worker over construction issues deliberately cut a safety rope, causing the worker to fall from the fourth floor. The victim suffered multiple fractures, and the man who cut the rope was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for one year, on charges of intentional injury.
