Mid-Day

The 32-year-old had asked the stall owner for a close inspection of the diamond on the opening day of Facets Sri Lanka, an annual jewellery show in the capital Colombo.

“He had taken the diamond out of a display cabinet and appeared to be appraising it and suddenly put it in his mouth,” said a police officer at the scene.

Diamond geezer: Police escort the 32-year-old Chinese after the stall owner saw him consuming the (inset)diamond. Pic/AFP

“The owner saw this and alerted us,” he said, adding that the man was arrested and taken to Colombo National Hospital to be given laxatives.

A spokeswomen at the hospital said that an X-ray had been taken and that officers were holding him under observation.
“I believe the X-ray confirmed something that looked like a stone. The man has been taken away and he is in police custody,” Pushpa Soya said.

Photographs showed the man, dressed in a black shirt and jeans with his head bowed, being escorted from the exhibition centre by uniformed policemen.