While some of us are still trying to get into the entertaining world of animation, others see it as deadly serious business. Just ask one young lad in Guiyang City who was so perturbed by the noise of construction outside his apartment during a cartoon session that he severed the safety line of the guy doing the work, leaving him to hang on for dear life eight floors above ground.

According to media in Guizhou Province, a man was installing a light onto the outer wall of an apartment building’s eighth floor at approximately 3:40pm. During the job he noticed his safety line shaking and spotted a young boy cutting at his lifeline with a knife from the window of a room on the same floor.

The worker immediately shouted at the boy to stop, but the child simply continued cutting right through the rope as if he didn’t hear the man’s cries. When the line was severed, the man was unable to move up or down and called to his coworkers asking for help. They in turn contacted the local fire department who hurried to the scene.

The rescue was slowed somewhat because the crew had trouble finding an apartment on the floors above with someone home, allowing rescue workers access to the fatigued worker. However, after about 40 minutes of hanging on, the man was able to be removed from the wall without injury. When police confronted the 10-year-old he initially denied guilt, but soon broke under pressure and confessed. He told police, “The sound of drilling outside was noisy while I was watching cartoons, so I cut the rope with a knife.”

The boy’s parents were at work while the incident was occurring. Authorities contacted the father who, in addition to apologizing for jeopardizing the man’s life, paid for the severed safety line.

There was no word on what program the boy was watching, but let’s hope for everyone’s sake that it teaches a valuable lesson against attempted murder somewhere down the line. It seems kids today need a refresher on that being wrong no matter how irritated you get.

Source: Xinhua via Hamusoku (Japanese), Chinashishi.net (Chinese)