Man pours mystery liquid over woman's head

By Liang Yiwen and Lydia Chen  |   2008-11-13  |     ONLINE EDITION

PUTUO District police are searching for a man who poured what may have been sulfuric acid over a woman's head on Zhenping Road about 10am this morning.

The victim surnamed Jiang is about 30 years old and from Jiangsu Province. She was walking on Zhenping Road this morning when a man followed her and suddenly poured a bottle of liquid over her head, according to witnesses.

Jiang cried for help and the man fled. Police reached the site and sent the women to Ruijin Hospital after receiving reports from witnesses.

Jiang was later released from hospital and she refused media interviews.

Police said they are still investigating the case.

Crimes involving pouring sulfuric acid on others in the city are usually due to extramarital affairs or love disputes.

In the most famous case, Yang Yuxia, a Shanghai native, was executed in December 1996 after she poured sulfuric acid on her lover’s eight-year-old daughter and his wife.

The girl was blinded and suffered burns to 20 percent of her skin while the wife had burns to seven percent of her skin.

Yang, a 28-year-old primary school teacher and mother of a three-year-old boy at the time, confessed in court that she did it because her lover refused to get a divorce and marry her instead.