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Narrow escape for Chinese man and daughter as charging e-scooter explodes at home

Bike that burst into flames was bought online only two weeks ago

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Smoke bursts from the electric scooter after it suddenly exploded inside a home in Beijing while charging. Photo: weibo
Windy Li

An electric scooter exploded and caught fire in a flat in China’s capital, after it had been charging for seven hours, a local newspaper reported on Monday.

The scooter’s owner, identified only by her surname Zhao, had complained to a consumer watchdog and intended to take legal action, Beijing Morning Post reported.

The incident was filmed on Sunday afternoon by a security camera system Zhao had installed in her Beijing flat. A 22-second clip from the footage shows the scooter being charged in the living room, when there is a sudden loud bang. A man identified as Zhao’s husband, is startled by the noise and suddenly gets up from the sofa and unplugs the bike as smoke pours from the vehicle.

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Then he picks up his daughter and runs out of the room just before the scooter bursts into flames.

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Security and property management staff extinguished the fire quickly and no one was injured.

Zhao was quoted as saying that she bought the scooter online two weeks earlier and had charged it just once before the accident happened. She said the scooter had been charging for seven hours before it exploded. The person she bought it from online had told her it needed to be charged for six to 12 hours.

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