A video which appears to show a daredevil’s safety harness snapping at hundreds of feet above the ground has become trending online.
In the 10-second clip from China, the male tourist is seen leaping on a series of sky-high wooden planks while being attached to a safety rope. But the rope is seen suddenly breaking as the man does the last jump.
After the video became widely shared on social media, authority told Chinese media that the video was a ‘marketing stunt’. But the response has drawn criticism from the public, who accuse the authority of evading responsibility.
A trending video shows a man jumping from plank to plank on a dangerous bridge in China
It appears that the safety hook suddenly breaks when he does the last jump in Chongqing
The terrifying footage was filmed at the Wansheng Ordovician, a theme park in China’s Chongqing city which is renowned for its extreme activities, according to Chinese news siteSina.
The clip was first uploaded to Douyin, a popular video-sharing app in China.
Sina reported that the incident occurred on October 1, the first day of the week-long National Day Holiday in China when millions of people start their family vacations.
The report also said the man was on an attraction called ‘Extreme Leaps’ or ‘Ji Xian Fei Yue’ in Chinese.
It is said the video was filmed at the Wansheng Ordovician theme park in Chongqing (pictured)
The theme park also has a glass bridge which is built on the side of a cliff face at 390ft high
Suspended 150 metres (492 feet) above the ground, the vertigo-inducing attraction consists of six planks placed on a metal frame over a cliff.
There is a gap between each two planks and tourists must hop from one plank to another to reach the other side. The gap between the planks comes in different widths, and the widest one is 1.5 metres (five feet).
There is no safety net underneath the dangerous path. Participants are attached to the safety wires above them by a rope.
The authority told Chinese media today that the video was posed and used for the purpose of marketing by the theme park.
‘It is a marketing stunt for a campaign (by the park). The purpose is to gain attention,’ said a spokesperson from the Propaganda Bureau of Wansheng Economic Development Zone, which manages the publicity of the area.
The spokesperson said the Bureau had issued the park a penalty and demanded it remove the video.
Another popular attraction in the park is a giant swing that rock at 1,000 feet high over a cliff
The park’s cliff-side swings have been a star attraction for the park since they opened last year
The Chinese public, however, are not convinced by the response. Some say the authority is evading their responsibility while others claim the so-called marketing video has achieved nothing but to damage the park’s reputation.
One user said on China’s Twitter-like Weibo: ‘This kind of marketing method proves that this activity in this scenic spot is extremely dangerous.’
Another wrote: ‘I dare not go after watching this.’
A third one commented: ‘Please explain how the hook fell off? If it had not been hastened, would the actor risk his life for a joke?’
MailOnline has contacted Wansheng Ordovician theme park for comments, and is awaiting a reply.
A spokesperson of the theme park told the local Slow News today that the park was investigating the matters.
The Tourism Development Committee of Wansheng Economic Development Zone told the same news outlet that it would launch an investigation. The Committee said the park could face a fine of at least 10,000 yuan if their facilities had safety issues.
Wansheng Ordovician theme park boasts a number of extreme activities and facilities.
Last year, it unveiled a transparent walkway which extends more than 80 metres (262 feet) from a cliff face above a vertigo-inducing 120-metre (390-foot) drop.
There is also a giant swing with 60ft long ropes, which is installed on the edge of a cliff at a whopping 300 metres (1,000 feet) high.