Lavish Chinese musical fountain silenced over ‘security concerns’

A musical fountain built at a huge expense in eastern China has been turned off for a year for “security reasons”, according to a news website report.

The fountain in a park near Changzhou North Railway station was shut last August because of security concerns as the neighbouring city of Nanjing was holding the Youth Olympics, Thepaper.cn said.

The authorities decided to keep the fountain turned off because construction work had started nearby on a subway line, according to the report.

Up to 40,000 people had turned up to see the fountain during one evening and fears were also expressed that there could be a crush if visitors were forced into one area of the square by the building work.

The fountain cost 58 million yuan (HK$70 million) to build when it opened in November two years ago and it was turned on during the evenings at weekends and on public holidays.

It is due to reopen in three years time when the subway line is finished, according to the report.