Speaking to state-run CCTV, Liang Jinlin, a fisherman involved in the hunt, said: "[We] are using pork as bait to lure it. Once it is caught in the net, there is no escape." Wei Yongwen, head of the local fisheries bureau, admitted the piranha attack had caught authorities by surprise.
"We haven't caught the piranha so far. From ancient times until the present day, we, the city of Liuzhou, have never seen a single piranha. We have no idea how many piranhas are in the river."
Native to South America's Amazon region, piranhas are banned in China but reports this week suggest they are sometimes sold illegally at collectors' markets.
In an editorial about the Amazonian invaders, Beijing's Legal Daily newspaper said "laws and regulations should be issued to control not only piranhas, but also other alien species."
"Piranhas have no natural predator in China and, considering their fast reproduction rate, once they form a natural population they will cause huge damage to China's biodiversity and hydro-ecosystem," the newspaper warned. "The whole of society should be mobilised to work together to eliminate dangerous alien species."
