An attempt by 14 desperate Chinese internet addicts to break out of an online re-education centre was foiled when the taxis they'd hired to facilitate their getaway dropped them off at the nearest nick.

The 14 teenagers burst out of the internet addiction bootcamp in Jiangsu after overpowering the commandant teacher and tying him up in bed with a quilt, Shanghai Daily reports.

Still wearing their regulation camo uniforms, they hired a pair of taxis to speed them away from the net-Gulag.

However, when it emerged they did not have money for the taxi fares, the drivers delivered them to the nearest police station.

They apparently complained that the camp was "boring and exhausting". They said they were being palmed off with bad food and being made to work out every day at the camp, for which their anxious parents pay around $2635 for six months.

However, the parents clearly don't see this as a waste of money, presumably deciding this was the perfect way to distract their offspring from the glamour of cyberspace and get them used to real life in the people's republic. All of them told the police to take them back to the camp. ®

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