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

AsiaWire

This is the moment red-faced villagers caught gambling during the coronavirus outbreak are forced to carry their playing table to a police station followed by a cop car with flashing lights.

The bizarre scenes were captured on the streets of Hexing, a town in China’s south-western municipality of Chongqing, on 13th February.

Playing mahjong, the hugely popular Chinese tile-based game played by four, has been banned during the COVID-19 outbreak since 4th February amid fears that gatherings, though small, could lead to unwitting disease transmission.

According to villager Mr Li, he invited three neighbours to his home in order to play mahjong because he was “bored”.

He told local media: “These are people I know well. We always play mahjong together.

“I even shut the door, but two officers from the local police station somehow got inside and ordered us to stop playing mahjong during the outbreak.

“They then took us to the police station.

“At the station, they told us we had breached public safety laws, which would usually result in a five-day sentence and a fine.

“But since it was our first offence, we were told to hand in our mahjong table at the station and collect it after the outbreak subsides.”

Mr Li and his neighbours, who were reportedly also asked to write a confession, were filmed as they were paraded through the streets carrying the large wooden table over their shoulders, a police car with flashing lights following closely behind.

Mr Li admitted he felt “deeply embarrassed” when he returned and found the video had been circulated among his neighbours and friends.

On 18th February, a spokesperson for Hexing Town Police Station told local media: “The local government has outlawed the playing of mahjong during the outbreak.

“They didn’t listen, so we summoned all four of them to the police station and made them sign confessions.

“We confiscated their table to stop them from playing. We’ll give it back as soon as the outbreak is over.”

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.