Fast cars crash in Beijing, netizens' jibes fly Furious

BEIJING - Online speculation is spreading in China as police detained the "unemployed" drivers of a Lamborghini and Ferrari that crashed in Beijing, just as the seventh stunt-filled Fast & Furious movie was about to open.

A 20-year-old surnamed Yu from Changchun, capital of the northeastern province of Jilin had driven the Ferrari, while a man surnamed Tang, aged 21, from Beijing, had been in the Lamborghini, the Agence France-Presse quoted the police as saying.

Both were jobless and one of them was injured, according to the police.

Photos of the mangled wreckage of a lime-green Lamborghini, a severely damaged red Ferrari and at least four other high-performance cars - two of which were also badly dented - in a tunnel in Beijing emerged online following the crash on Saturday night in heavy rain.

But the drivers seemed unruffled by the incident.

After the police and the press had arrived at the scene, one driver was heard telling the other with a laugh: "That really scared the hell out of me" and was hugged by the latter as they teased each other, reported the Beijing News.

Reporters noticed that some outer parts of the terrace wall had been sheared off showing the steel and wiring within.

The two drivers were later detained by the police for street racing, reported the People's Daily.

"Socialism is so good that it allows unemployed people to drive supercars," said one post on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, mocking the country's communist rule.

"What are their names? Who are their fathers?" another netizen asked.

"Were they in a hurry to watch Fast & Furious 7?" went another post.

The crash occurred at about 10pm, two hours before Fast & Furious 7 broke the record for midnight screenings on its release in China, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A high-speed Ferrari crash in the capital in March 2012 killed the son of Ling Jihua, a close ally of then president Hu Jintao. Two women passengers, one of them naked, were injured.

A police statement yesterday identified the models of both the Lamborghini, which sells for around US$800,000 (S$1.09 million) in China, and the Ferrari, which can cost around US$500,000.

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