SERIOUSLY burned by a blast triggered by a gas leak, a young couple was facing exorbitant medical bills. However, the good Samaritans in the city have once again provided hope, as 1 million yuan (US$156,707) was raised within 10 hours of the accident, sznews.com reported Thursday.

The couple was having dinner in their rental apartment in Luohu District before the blast happened on the evening of May 17.

The man, going by the alias Tang Xiaoxuan, had 85 percent of the surface of his body burned, while his girlfriend, identified as Qin, had 60 percent of the surface of her body burned, including her face.

The two had just ended their long-distance relationship and were about to get married. Nevertheless, the sudden accident cost them all of their savings, not to mention the subsequent medical bills that could get as high as 3 million yuan.

Not long after the accident, a netizen named Qin Qiaofei launched an online fundraising campaign to help the couple. In 10 hours, more than 29,000 netizens joined the campaign and over a million yuan was raised.

A man surnamed Lin heard the news Tuesday evening. “When I made a donation, it had only raised around 10,000 yuan, so I forwarded the link to my WeChat Moments. Before I went to sleep, it had raised over 20,000 yuan. I thought the chances were slim that a million yuan could be raised, but when I woke up the next morning, it had raised over 900,000 yuan and later it reached a million yuan,” said Lin.

Lin added that many of his friends had sent messages to ask him how to make donations after the campaign turned out to be successful. He said people in Shenzhen are very kind-hearted, which makes him a little proud to be counted among them.

According to Tang’s sister, he had an operation Tuesday and was unable to speak at the moment. Qin was doing a bit better than her fiance and was able to speak and communicate with others.

(Zhang Yu)