China's middle-of-the-road house is demolished

The five-storey middle-of-the-road home has now been bulldozed (Reuters)

Authorities in China have demolished a five-storey home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road. The house was bulldozed yesterday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation.

The couple had been the last to accept removal from a neighbourhood demolished to make way for the road heading to a new railway station on the outskirts of Wenling in Zhejiang province.

The destruction of the house came a week after images of it circulated online in China, triggering a flurry of domestic and foreign media reports. Mr Luo, 67, had just completed his house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan (£60,000) when the government approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 yuan (£20,000) to move out – which he refused. The offer was raised to 260,000 yuan last week.