Internet users aren't buying Premier Wen Jiabao's explanation of his unusually late visit to the scene of the Wenzhou train crash.
In previous disasters, from snowstorms that brought the south to a standstill in 2007-2008 to the Sichuan earthquake the following summer, Wen was the first senior official on the scene.
After the earthquake, he was seen amid the still-smouldering rubble with his trademark megaphone in his hand. But his visit to Wenzhou came six days after the event.
'I was in my sickbed for the past 11 days,' the 68-year-old premier said at a press conference in Wenzhou yesterday.
'The doctor only reluctantly allowed me to travel today.'
But on July 18, Wen hosted a welcome ceremony for visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
