Two-ton bell falls on tourist, traps him inside
Emergency workers spent hours working out how to rescue Lin Wang / Image via wordpress.com
A prankster was lucky to escape with his life after a two-ton temple bell came crashing down on top of him.
The tourist and his pals had been ringing the huge bronze bell vigorously - then it fell from its mounting with him standing beneath.
But instead of crushing him, the bell trapped him inside for hours.
The close shave happened at a Buddhist temple in the Shandong province of eastern China.
Firefighters spent more than two hours rescuing tourist Lin Wang after setting up a series of winches to lift the bell off him.
After being freed by emergency services, he remained unrepentant and said: “It’s a bell, it’s supposed to be rung.
“They should have made sure it was safe.”
The giant bell is used by monks to summon Buddhist priests to prayer.
An angry spokesman for the temple said Lin should not have been messing around with the ancient bell.
He said: “This bell is very old and should have been treated with respect.
“He’s lucky he wasn’t crushed. Instead, it broke and the bell fell on top of the man like a trap.”
Safety inspectors said that screws securing the bell’s mounting bracket were wrenched out as a result of the frantic ringing.
