CHINA:It looked like a scene from ancient Chinese literature when the jealous lover swooped to kidnap the bride, or at least like a scene from Quentin Tarantino's movie Kill Bill.
Local media told of how a disgruntled former boyfriend staged a dramatic ambush of a wedding convoy and kidnapped the bride, believed to be his ex-girlfriend, while a dozen knife-wielding accomplices backed him up.
The kidnapping took place at a crossroads in rural Shannxi province, in the northwestern part of China, last Sunday, according to the Beijing News. Men bearing knives blocked the convoy.
"They smashed the windows of the wedding cars with knives and steel pipes, dragged the bride out and put her into one of their cars before fleeing," one witness told the newspaper.
The abductee was a 22-year-old nurse. Her father believed his daughter's former boyfriend had staged the kidnap.
"He was being treated at a hospital when my daughter was interning there and they had been in a relationship," the father said.
There were no details about whether the bride was a willing abductee. The search was continuing, but by Monday evening the police had made little progress in finding the ex-boyfriend and the bride.
Even though his bride had been kidnapped, the groom went on alone to complete the remaining wedding rituals. Local custom demands that they cannot be stopped once started.
The heroic kidnapping of brides by devoted lovers who fly in the face of their families is a regular theme in ancient Chinese literature, much as it is in Western literature. In particular, the practice of arranged marriages led to many brides or grooms absconding.
However, this incident, in which a woman was slightly injured, came as a shock. "It's the first time I've ever seen a bride kidnapping in daylight," one of the wedding party said.
In another incident, a building contractor's mistress organised 17 people in a daring plan to help her spring her lover out of jail, where he was being investigated on corruption charges. Liu Qian (27) is being hailed online as a "paragon mistress".
She succeeded in getting former state building firm manager Yao Chuanrui out of the hotel where he was undergoing the unpopular practice known as shuang gui, where suspects are held at secret locations and questioned indefinitely.
He was been detained on suspicion of embezzling nearly €7 million in company funds and Ms Liu is now being charged herself.