Police investigate case of massive shared bike fire in Chengdu

Local police are investigating a case of around 100 badly burnt shared bikes that were found abandoned in woods in Chengdu, China's Sichuan Province on Friday, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Burnt ofo shared bikes are seen in woods in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on December 1, 2017. [Photo: Thepaper.cn]

The majority of the destroyed bikes belonged to Chinese bike-sharing giant Ofo.

This was the third time in a month that the company has discovered burnt shared bikes. This case includes bikes valued at a total of between 60,000 to 70,000 yuan (9,072 to 10,584 U.S. dollars).

Burnt ofo shared bikes are seen in woods in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on December 1, 2017. [Photo: Thepaper.cn]

Song Peng, an operations and maintenance staff member at ofo's Chengdu branch, said the burnt shared bikes were seen in urban villages with a dense and mixed population.

"We monitor the location of our shared bikes, and a lot of bikes unused for a long time at one location drew our attention. After investigations, we found about 100 burnt bikes on November 15, 20 and 25, and reported this to police," Song said.

Burnt ofo shared bikes are seen in woods in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on December 1, 2017. [Photo: Thepaper.cn]

Zhou Hao, a lawyer from W&H Law Firm, confirmed that the burning of shared bikes could be considered a criminal act.

As early as February, a person was placed in criminal detention after setting fire to shared bikes in a scenic area in Chengdu.