Man held after calling emergency line 400 times

A man from a village in Ningbo's Xiangshan county in Zhejiang province was detained for 10 days, after he "irresponsibly" called the country's emergency number 1-1-0 nearly 400 times this year - concocting all sorts of lies and wild stories.

The man, in his 40s, surnamed Xi, most recently called the emergency line on Thursday, claiming that he wanted to "kill people."

After putting up with Xi's harassing telephone antics for a year, local police decided to put a stop to his inappropriate calls, tracking him down to his hometown village of Hepu, and brought him in for detention.

Xi admitted to making some calls for non-emergent reasons.

"When I got upset I'd call 1-1-0 because I was at least able to talk to someone," Xi was quoted as saying by Ningbo-based newspaper Modern Gold Express on Monday.

Xi also confessed to sometimes telling operators whatever came to his mind, even making up fires or accidents.