A man was given 18 months imprisonment for telling a railway station in northeast China's Liaoning Province that the station would be exploded at night, according to Shenyang Railway Transportation Court.

Wang Xiaoqiao, 21 and a native of Nanxi County in southwestern Sichuan Province, had been involved in a pyramid selling scheme in Anshan city of Liaoning Province since May 2006.

On May 3 this year, a person surnamed Huang, whom Wang tried to recruit to his scheme, told Wang that he would leave Anshan for Beijing by train and then returned to his hometown in southwestern Guizhou Province.

Wang was unwilling to give up Huang without scooping money from him. Failing to persuade him to stay, Wang called the Anshan Railway Station, saying "I am in Fujian Province. I was informed that a passenger will carry exploders to Beijing by tonight's train."

The staff members at the station reported it to police immediately. The police from Shenyang railroad police station started a safe haul over the train at once, which detained the train for 43 minutes at the Panjin stop.

On May 5, police caught Wang in his abode in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province.

Wang made an outright confession at the court. "But I didn't know this was a crime. I was just unwilling to let him go so easily," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2007)