SHENZHEN - An employee of tech firm Foxconn died on Friday after jumping from a building in this southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the 10th such suicide incident since the start of this year, local police said.
The dead worker has been identified as Nan Gang, a 21-year-old man from Central China's Hubei province.
He was off duty at around 4 am when he climbed to the top of a four-story factory building in Foxconn's industrial complex in Longhua Township.
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He jumped at 4:37 am, said Huang Jianwei, a spokesman of the Bao'an police station of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau.
Foxconn spokesman Liu Kun refused comment on Friday.
Nan's jump was the 10th jump by employees of Foxconn in four months. The first case took place on Jan 23 when a male employee, Ma Xiangqian, 19, jumped off the building to his death. Eight people, including six men and two women, were killed, while two female employees were seriously injured after their jumps.
All the victims were migrant workers from outside the city and were aged between 18 and 24 years old.
The latest incident happened two days after a special investigative team headed by Shenzhen's Deputy Mayor Li Ming, who is also director of the city's public security bureau, was dispatched to the company to find out the cause of the recent suicides among the company's employees.
Friday's suicide came on the same day as the deaths of two Foxconn workers earlier this year at a northern China plant were revealed.
The two deaths at the plant in Langfang, Hebei province, which happened at the beginning of this year, were confirmed Friday by the city's district government of Anci, after relatives reported them to the media, Xinhua news agency said.
Wang Qiunu, a local government spokeswoman, said the dead Foxconn workers have been identified as Rong Bo, a 19-year-old man, and Wang Lingyan, a girl aged 16.
Rong died after jumping off the company's dormitory building on Jan 8. Wang was found dead on her dormitory bed on Feb 23, said Wang.
"Police investigations have ruled out foul play in the two deaths. The Langfang People's Hospital has maintained that the girl died of sudden cardiac arrest," said the spokeswoman.
She said the families of the dead had each received compensation of 110,000 yuan ($16,100) from the company.
Foxconn's Langfang plant has 30,000 workers.
In addition to heavy work pressure, the lack of interpersonal relations at Foxconn's campus is one of the major causes of the suicide cases, according to employees.
A report by Beijing Television on Thursday showed video footage of factory security guards in black uniforms beating workers in Foxconn's Beijing plant in August last year. The video has incurred public outrage towards the company managers.
Meng Jingdi, an ex-employee of Foxconn, said roommates do not know each other, let alone communicate with each other.
Liu Kaiming, director of the city's research institute of modern society, said Foxconn's suicide cases indicate relevant departments' lack of effective measures and systems to manage the city's large number of migrant workers.
He urged relevant departments to try to encourage the city's migrant workers, who are mostly isolated in their dormitories and factory areas, to enter into local communities and neighborhoods, via a series of household registration reforms and to improve the city's public policies and relevant regulations.
Le Zheng, director of the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, said the government should pay special heed to the psychological needs of the young migrant workers to stop similar future tragedies.
