Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

This is the moment a BMW driver who wanted to visit his parents crashed through a gated community’s coronavirus screening checkpoint and then smashed into the back of a parked car.

Suspect Mr Du, from Shanghai’s Minhang District, reportedly refused to follow emergency protocols which requires his name and number plate to be logged by security guards before entering the residential district where his parents live.

Mr Du, who was planning to return home to visit his parents on 15th February, is said to have got into an argument with the community security guards who tried to stop him from driving straight in.

CCTV cameras outside the gated community show Mr Du then crashing his BMW saloon straight through a metal barrier in order to bypass the checkpoint.

However, he is immediately stopped when he rear-ends a parked SUV belonging to another resident.

Shanghai’s Qibao Police Station said Mr Du was summoned for investigation and admitted to ignoring disease-prevention measures by attempting to force his way into the gated community.

He remains in custody on public order charges as further investigations continue.

As the death toll from the coronavirus – now officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization – soars to 1,770, crowded residential districts have been put on alert as high risk zones.

In the coastal province of Zhejiang, the third-worst hit by COVID-19, residents have been asked to remain in their homes and can only send one family member to shop for necessities once every 48 hours.

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