Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder,  Agency: Asia Wire Report

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

This 50-year-old man who claims that a giant dragon was responsible for a deadly earthquake that killed 12 people and injured 134 was arrested for spreading ‘fake news’ after he shared this dubious-looking photo.

On 17th June, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the city of Yibin in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan and 50-year-old Zhang Moumou posted on social media that “the earthquake was caused by a dragon”.

An apparently manipulated photo was also included, showing an enormous snake winding along a busy dirt track as hundreds of people nonchalantly look on.

Moumou’s post said: “An earthquake took place in Yibin [that] caused severe debris flow. A 120-metre dragon with a diameter of 1.5 metres jumped out of [the] water at 2pm today, attracting thousands of people. Experts have flown here and said that this dragon has something to do with the earthquake.”

The post on Chinese social network Weibo was widely circulated and many netizens took it seriously. 

Comments included “it is Photoshopped but I believe him” and “my nan told me about this”.

Yibun Cyber Police were alerted to the post and arrested Moumou in the city of Chongqing.

He reportedly confessed to spreading the ‘fake news’, but claimed that he “did it just for fun”.

Moumou also wrote a letter of apology following his arrest.

He is still being held in Yibin, although the terms of his detention are unclear.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.