A man's life was saved thanks to the Internet and efforts made by people separated by thousands of kilometers.

Early Monday morning, police in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, received a report that a man named Xiao Chen sounded suicidal in an online chat with a net friend in Guangdong Province in South China.

"The caller who had chatted with Xiao said he only knew Xiao's telephone number and that Xiao was in room 403 in a certain office building. Then we called Xiao, but got no answer, and we found that there was no one in room 403," said Bai Wenjun, a policeman who took part in the rescue.

After a one-hour search by more than 10 policemen and Xiao's colleagues, the 30-year-old Xiao was finally saved. He had already turned on the gas in a suicide attempt at home.