Man dies after falling into pit in sidewalk

A man was seriously burned by hot underground thermal pipelines on Tuesday when he fell into a pit that had opened after a section of sidewalk had collapsed in Dalian, Liaoning province.

The opening, about one square meter in size, was near the city's Zhongshan Road. When this reporter arrived at the scene, it had had been covered and cordoned off by the police.

"I'm certain it's not a thermal well," said a officer with the Dalian Thermal Power Co, indicating the accident was the result of a sidewalk that had collapsed rather that a missing manhole cover.

"As my husband and I were driving on the road at noon, a man walking on the sidewalk suddenly disappeared and we saw hot steam rising up ahead," said Diudiuyiyi, a netizen on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service.

"My husband reacted quickly, stopped the car and ran to the scene," she said. "We saw struggling hands and heard cries for help. My husband dragged him out quickly. The surface of the sidewalk was very thin and wasn't well-supported."

A local hospital, where the man is receiving treatment, said 65 percent of his body was burnt but said his life is not in danger, according to a report on people.com.cn run by People's Daily.

The accident site lies about 200 meters away from a subway station that is under construction, according to a resident living nearby who declined to provide her full name.

In April, Yang Erjing, a 27-year-old woman in Beijing, died after falling into boiling water that was leaking from broken underground pipes under a section of collapsed pavement.

And in Dalian, a 28-year-old woman died on March 16 after she had stepped into an uncovered thermal well.