Chinese social media star dies after being set on fire during a live-streaming show
A 30-year-old Chinese vlogger died after being set on re by her ex-husband while doing a livestream two weeks earlier.
The former partner reportedly broke into the star’s home armed with a cleaver and petrol before attacking her in front of her family members in mid-September.
The video blogger, known as Lamu, sustained burns on 90 per cent of her body and was left fighting for her life for more than two weeks, reports said. She was pronounced dead by doctors last night.
Police have detained Lamu’s husband, but his motives remain unclear.
Some reports from Chinese media suggested that the suspect was seeking revenge on Lamu because she had initiated their divorce due to domestic violence. The couple had two young sons.
Police are yet to comment on the claims.
Lamu was a popular Tibetan video blogger who lived in the mountainous prefecture of Aba in western China’s Sichuan Province.
Through her account on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik Tok, she had amassed more than 782,000 followers and 6.3million ‘likes’ before being assaulted.
Some of Lamu’s videos documented her life in rural China. Others showed her lip-syncing to songs she liked.
In the last video featuring Lamu, uploaded on September 14, she was performing to a traditional Tibetan song to express her best wishes to her fans.
Later on the day, the star’s regular live broadcast suddenly had a black screen before her fans heard screams, reported Beijing Youth Daily.
Her account did not have any activity for two days before Lamu’s sister, Zhuoma, posted about the attack.
Zhuoma made a desperate plea for financial help and begged the public to help save Lamu. Good Samaritans donated around one million yuan (£114,038) to the family.
Lamu was declared dead by doctors after treatment had failed, a police statement said today.
It stated that Lamu, identified by police by her surname A, was assaulted by her ex-husband, Tang, at around 8.50pm on September 14.
She was rushed to the People’s Hospital in the Aba Prefecture and transferred to the People’s Hospital of the Sichuan Hospital on September 17 for better medical attention.
Police said they detained Tang on suspicion of intentional homicide on the night of September 14. They added that they were carrying out further investigation.
Lamu’s family said they had spent more than 60 per cent of the donations on her treatment and would return the rest of the money to the fund-raising platform.
