A software company stepped into the breach when a competitor struggled to keep its promise to hand out free anti-virus software to the public at Bainaohui Square, reports Beijing Times.

Kingsoft had previously published a newspaper advertisement announcing that it would distribute free software, designed to combat the Blaster Wurm virus that has been plaguing computers worldwide, at 9 am on Tuesday.

But representatives of the company did not show up until 11 am, by which time some 5,000 people had gathered at the designated place.

Seeing that the crowd was becoming impatient and cross, Kingsoft turned to its rival, Rising, for help.

The crowd began to calm down when the Rising people arrived soon after.

Kingsoft, which did not start handing out the special software until noon, explained that it had consigned an express mail firm to deliver the discs, but that the firm had not realized there was a time constraint.

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