Two men were recently arrested for making false bomb threats, one against a consulate in Shanghai, the other against a hypermarket, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau announced yesterday.

On June 11, a threatening fax written in Korean was sent to the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai. The sender identified himself as Li and demanded the consulate not approve a visa application submitted by a woman surnamed Lu. If the visa was approved, he said he would commit a suicide bombing against the consulate and retaliate by attacking Korean people in the city.

Police officers said they immediately set up a special task force to investigate the case.

Soon investigators arrested the suspect in a hostel on Yutong Road, Zhabei District, and he reportedly confessed to sending the threat.

Li allegedly told police he had been infatuated with Lu for a long time, but she had never shown any interest in him. When he heard that Lu had applied for a visa to go to South Korea, Li decided to send a bomb threat to stop her, he allegedly told police.

The other hoax took place on the night of October 1, when a hypermarket on Sanmeng Road in Baoshan District received a threatening call, claiming two bombs had been placed on the first and the third floors of the large shopping mall.

Baoshan police arrived on the scene within minutes and carried out an on-site investigation, but didn't find any explosives.

"The suspect claimed to have placed explosives but did not make any demand, which led investigators to assume the call was made by someone who had recently been fired or punished by the supermarket," said Zhuang Liqiang, a bureau official.

Following four hours of interviews with store employees, police focused their suspicion on a former employee surnamed Chen and caught up with him at his home.

Chen admitted inventing the false crisis as a form of revenge after he lost the job at the store for fighting with others after drinking during work hours.

"We want to sternly warn criminals that severe punishment will be imposed on those who release fake terror information and endanger the public security," Zhuang said yesterday.

He wouldn't say how often false bomb threats are made in Shanghai, but did say police have solved several similar cases this year. Enditem

(Shanghai Daily December 15, 2005)