Authorities in China are employing surveillance drones in an effort to stamp out cheating in college entrance exams.
The stakes are high in the tests, with the scores determining which tier of university students can go to. Methods of cheating have included selling answers, hiring surrogate test takers and using wireless equipment to communicate during the test.
But this year officials have unleashed a six-propeller drone, flown over two testing centres in Luoyang in Henan province on Sunday the first day of the exam to scan for signals being sent to devices which may have been smuggled in. No such signals were detected, local reports said.
The drone cost hundreds of thousands of yuan equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds and is as big as a petrol station pump when extended, according to Lan Zhigang, from Luoyangs radio supervision and regulation bureau.
