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A Chinese visitor to a gem exhibition in Sri Lanka has been arrested for swallowing a diamond said to be worth $13,000 (about £8,200), police say.
The 32-year-old man swallowed the gem after taking it from a display cabinet as the annual exhibition opened on Wednesday in the capital, Colombo.
"He... appeared to be appraising it and suddenly put it in his mouth," an unnamed police officer told AFP.
He said the man was taken to hospital to be given laxatives.
It is not yet clear whether the diamond has been recovered from the man, who was also arrested for attempted theft.
Police say that the suspect asked diamond owner Suresh de Silva for a close inspection of the gem.
Mr de Silva told the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo that he complained to police after seeing the visitor put the precious stone in his mouth and then swallow it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19487763
The 32-year-old man swallowed the gem after taking it from a display cabinet as the annual exhibition opened on Wednesday in the capital, Colombo.
"He... appeared to be appraising it and suddenly put it in his mouth," an unnamed police officer told AFP.
He said the man was taken to hospital to be given laxatives.
It is not yet clear whether the diamond has been recovered from the man, who was also arrested for attempted theft.
Police say that the suspect asked diamond owner Suresh de Silva for a close inspection of the gem.
Mr de Silva told the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo that he complained to police after seeing the visitor put the precious stone in his mouth and then swallow it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19487763
