Six police cars were sent to pursue a "gun-holding" man on Sunday in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, but the weapon turned out to be an oversized lighter, not a gun, Yangtze Evening News reported.

The police station in Nanjing received a call from a person who said a man was carrying a half-meter-long hunting gun in the street. Six police cars were immediately sent to find the man.

But later police found that the gun was actually a toy lighter when the owner demonstrated how to use it.

The man said he won the gun-shaped lighter during a restaurant raffle.

(China Daily March 5, 2009)