Chinese man suffers 90% burns in battery blast, injuries worsen as flatmate flees, shuts door

SCMP | April 21, 2025, 6 a.m. | Original

A young man in China suffered 90 per cent burns when the battery of his friend’s electric bicycle exploded inside their flat. Photo: SCMP composite/Douyin

The promising life of a 22-year-old man in China has been forcibly put on hold after his roommate’s electric bike battery exploded causing him severe burns.

To make matters worse, the roommate fled as the incident unfolded, shut the door behind him, compounding Du Junhao’s dangerous predicament.

Du was a third-year student at Wuhan City College, in central China’s Hubei province, when the devastating accident happened last summer.

He was looking forward to opening his own furniture installation business after graduation.

Surveillance video footage shows Li Jiajun grabbing fire extinguishers in the smoke-filled corridor outside the flat. Photo: 163.com
Surveillance video footage shows Li Jiajun grabbing fire extinguishers in the smoke-filled corridor outside the flat. Photo: 163.com

But his hopes were dashed by his schoolmate Li Jiajun, with whom he rented a flat last summer to work at part-time jobs.

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