A crowd of students of a university in Southwest China's Sichuan Province gathers at the school gate, waiting to see a famous Chinese boy band member. Photo: Screenshot of a video posted by BTV

Hundreds of young people rushed to a university in Southwest China's Sichuan Province over the rainy weekend to catch a glimpse of a Chinese boy band member after hearing that he would be filming at the university. But later the university clarified the star did not come and did not know where the rumor came from. 

It was later found that the rumor had been started by a male student at the university who shouted "Wang Junkai (the star's name) is here" as a prank after being rejected by a woman he has a crush on Saturday evening, btime.com reported on Monday.

In a video clip on btime.com that had received around 3 million views on Sina Weibo as of Tuesday night, a crowd of the university's students, mostly women, braved the rain and stormed the campus gates to see the 21-year-old famous idol, with some even falling onto the wet ground in the stampede.

The video led to heated debate on social media, with many netizens criticizing the students for "irrational star-chasing behavior" that caused chaos on the campus. "They definitely won't get that excited if their parents come," one Weibo user scoffed.

In a video, the university's publicity administrator denied the rumor, saying the university is adopting closed-off management [amid the COVID-19 pandemic] which means no outsiders can enter. "We're confused and depressed by the gossip," the administrator lamented.