More information released on student death in Chengdu

The body of a 16-year-old student who jumped to his death in the Chenghua district of Chengdu, Sichuan province on Sunday was cremated on Thursday, according to the Chenghua district branch of the Chengdu Municipal Police Bureau.

Police ruled out foul play in a statement issued on Thursday. The cremation was approved by his parents, the branch said.

The student, surnamed Lin, had shown suicidal tendencies according to an investigative report by Xinhua News Agency.

A netizen claiming to be his mother said his son had been fine when he went to school at 5:40 pm on Sunday and said "Happy Mother's Day".

"But one hour later, such a big thing happened, " the netizen said on social media.

The posts triggered huge attention online, as the initial statement from the police was vague.

Many netizens questioned why there was a delay to inform the parents and why the parents failed to see the video as alleged by the posts.

In the wee hours of Wednesday, Xinhua reporters watched all surveillance video from the Chengdu No 49 Middle School in the Chenghua district branch.

At 6:16 pm, Lin was seen leaving his classroom. At 28 seconds after 6:49 pm, his fall was spotted in the video, the Xinhua report said.

Earlier, Lin was found entering the school's pump house on the lower ground floor at 6:25 pm, using something with an edge to cut his left wrist and appearing to be in low spirits, the report said.

Police checked Lin's cell phone and found he wrote last June to a friend he thought of the building at the Chengdu No 49 Middle School every day and how jumping would get rid of all his worries.

In early May, he wrote comments in QQ belittling himself and expressing his problems. Some students told police Lin was introverted, the Xinhua report said.

According to a local media report in Chengdu, police found a note for a girl in the deceased student's right trousers pocket which read: "I have been weeping almost three times a week . I have reached the roof and cut my wrist."

Mi Ping, chief of the safety center of the Chengdu No 49 Middle School, told Xinhua the reason the school informed Lin's family of his tragedy two hours later was the boy's head was badly damaged and it took time to recognize who it was.

Before the boy's head teacher left home for school on Sunday, she had left behind her cell phone with the contact number of his family. It took time to find the number, Mi said.

Police kept the surveillance video immediately after arriving at the school, and Lin's family could not see it on Sunday evening.

At around 11 am on Monday, his father, along with a family member and a lawyer, watched the video in a police office. Some of Lin's movements were missing because the platform linking the fourth floor of the school lab building and the school gymnasium was supposed to be an inaccessible area not covered by the surveillance camera. So it had appeared to his family as if some of the video was missing, police said.

Lin had climbed down to the platform from the fifth floor of the lab building and started his jump there, police said.