BEIJING – China’s Internet users on Monday lamented the callousness of the country’s teeming cities following the discovery of a woman’s body a month after she was trapped in a malfunctioning lift.

The 43-year-old, reportedly suffering from mental illness but living alone, was stuck in the lift in the northern city of Xian in late January when maintenance workers shut off the power without properly checking if anyone was inside at the time, Chinese media said previously.

Her body was only found 30 days later as the crew left for the annual Lunar New Year holiday and did not return until March 1.

Chinese web users were shocked by the accident, deploring the indifference of relationships in modern society.

“I thought such things would only take place in the wild,” one user posted on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.

“But actually the crowded cities are nothing but just a forest of steel – we are surrounded by so many people and have so many ‘good friends’ in (online) chat groups but there are few that really have anything to do with you.”

Another user said she was haunted by fears of a solitary existence.

“I’m so afraid of becoming a woman so disliked, living alone and with no one showing any interest in me,” she wrote.

Those responsible for the incident have been detained by police, reports said, without specifying whether they were the maintenance crew or others involved.

China is prone to accidents as regulations and standards are often flouted and enforcement is lax, sometimes due to corruption.

Last July a woman was killed after she plunged through flooring over an escalator in a Chinese department store.

Media on Monday blasted widespread negligence in China’s lift maintenance industry and property management companies. A commentary carried by news portal jxnews.com.cn urged the government to strengthen supervision “to ensure such tragedies do not happen again”.

It also criticised the victim’s family for allegedly leaving her alone.

“The sick woman had no one to take care of her. It is impossible to understand why (her relatives) were so indifferent. How could such a mishap occur if she was looked after?” it asked.

Related: Woman could have starved in death after being trapped in lift

Woman stuck in a lift for a month dies

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TOKYO – Japanese police on Monday set up a special unit to oversee efforts to stem what they are describing as a full-fledged “war” between rival organised crime groups, media reported.

Officers have made a series of raids and arrests since late last year after a split in the country’s biggest crime syndicate fuelled fears of the worst gang conflict in decades.

The Yamaguchi-gumi gang based in the western city of Kobe has been rocked by internal strife since late last year following the defection of several top leaders who formed a rival splinter group.

The split in Japan’s biggest organised crime, or yakuza, organisation has prompted police warnings of a possible repeat of a 1980s gangland bloodbath.

On Monday, the National Police Agency declared that the two groups were in a state of “war against each other” and established a special headquarters to “intensify” their response, Jiji Press reported.

An agency spokesman could not immediately confirm the report, though it came as officers are investigating a spike in suspected violence involving the groups.

Two bullets were found Sunday inside an office loyal to the recently formed renegade group in the city of Mito northeast of Tokyo, a police spokesman said Monday.

Three bullet holes were also visible on a wall, but no one was injured.

The incident came after police arrested a 40-year-old gangster on suspicion that a truck he drove careened into another parked in front of the office on Saturday.

“We suspect the two cases are part of the recent conflicts” between the Yamaguchi-gumi and the splinter group, a spokesman for Mito police said.

“We are strengthening security and closely monitoring further developments,” he told AFP.

A dozen similar cases allegedly involving the internecine strife have been reported since late February.

In Toyama, a prefecture on Japan’s northwestern coast, a member belonging to the splinter group was arrested last week on suspicion of injuring a rival Yamaguchi-gumi gangster.

“Residents are very worried,” Kenichi Tanaka, a local police official told Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, after 10 police vehicles cruised around an elementary school near a gang office with which the suspect is affiliated.

“We are remaining doggedly vigilant to protect them.”

Similar to the Mafia in Italy and Chinese triads, Japan’s yakuza engage in everything from gambling, drugs and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets and white-collar crime.

But overall Japan is known for its peaceful society and low crime rates while strict firearm control laws make gun violence extremely rare, though it is often linked to organised crime gangs when it occurs.

Periodic crackdowns and police efforts to choke off Yamaguchi-gumi’s sources of funding have gained momentum in recent years.

Public wariness of tolerance for organised crime and Japan’s slack economy have made life difficult for gangsters and made membership less attractive for potential recruits, experts say.