A hoaxer who dreamed of becoming a journalist lied about his girlfriend being caught in a landslide that killed 10 people because he wanted to accompany reporters to the scene.

Zheng Yang, 23, from Leshan in Sichuan province, approached the media after the landslide on July 17, Chengdu Commercial Daily reported.

He said he believed his 19-year-old girlfriend was a victim of the tragedy, which happened on the No 213 National Highway in Maoxian and injured 22.

Zheng pretended to be anxious and asked to go to the scene with the reporters. He was advised to travel there in an ambulance but refused, saying this would not be "interesting".

Members of the media realized he was lying, and discovered he had carried out a similar hoax before. Last August Zheng told a TV station that his girlfriend had been injured in an armed robbery on a bus in Anyang, Henan province.

He said he lied about the landslide because he wanted to see what it was like to be a reporter.

He had dreamed of working in the media since junior high school, but his poor education stopped him from fulfilling his ambition.