Khaberni - The city of Chengdu in western China witnessed a tragic accident after a young man was burnt to death inside his electric car model "Xiaomi SU7", following a collision with a concrete wall and its complete ignition at a time when electronic door systems hindered rescue attempts.
According to the city police statement, the accident occurred around 3:15 AM on the vital Tianfu road when the driver, aged 31, lost control of his vehicle and violently collided with the road divider, leading to a partial explosion followed by a massive fire that consumed the car within minutes.
Recorded clips that spread on social media showed flames engulfing the car while several passersby tried to break the windows to rescue the driver, but to no avail.
One witness told the local newspaper "The Paper," that "four or five people tried to break the glass with their hands, and one of them suffered severe injuries, yet the electronically locked doors prevented the driver from being rescued before he was consumed by the flames."
The witness added that the fire brigade arrived a few minutes later and used equipment to cut the metal frame, "but the driver had already died before they could reach him."
Preliminary investigations revealed that the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and had collided with another vehicle minutes before the accident, suggesting that high speed and loss of control were direct causes of the catastrophe.
However, experts pointed out that smart safety systems in some electric cars exacerbated the tragedy, as the electronic doors designed to lock automatically upon collision rely on electric power, and when the power is cut off due to the fire or battery damage, they lose the ability to open manually, turning the car into a "deadly trap," according to a professor of vehicle engineering at Tsinghua University in China.
At the accident site, citizens placed flowers and candles to honor the victims, while the hashtag "Xiaomi car fire" topped social media platforms achieving more than 300 million views within 24 hours amid calls for a review of safety standards in electric cars in China, which is the largest market for these vehicles in the world.
The burned car belonged to the latest electric models of "Xiaomi" launched this year, and the incident is the second fatal accident involving a car from the same category in less than a year, increasing the pressure on the company facing escalating regulatory scrutiny around its safety systems and design.
After the video clips of the incident circulated on platforms like Weibo and Douyin, "Xiaomi's" shares in the Hong Kong stock market fell sharply by 8.7%, marking the largest decrease since April last year.
