China: Five Street Children Found Dead In Bin

The bodies of five street children have been found inside a bin in southwest China after they climbed inside it to escape the cold, according to state media.

The boys, who were aged about 10, died of carbon monoxide poisoning after apparently burning charcoal inside the container to keep warm.

A refuse collector discovered the bodies in the city of Bijie in Guizhou province. The overnight low temperature in the mountainous city was 6C.

Photographs uploaded to the internet showed the bin is about 1.5 metres long and 1.3 metres wide, with an airtight lid.

Post-mortem examinations confirmed carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death, the Xinhua news agency reported.

It said leftover burnt charcoal was found inside the bin, which indicated that the boys might have been burning charcoal for heat before they died.

The tragedy has sparked an outcry on the web. A post on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, had more than 2.5 million hits as of Sunday evening.

While some users accused the local government of negligence, others said the parents of the children were also to blame.

"It reminded me of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Isn't it that such things only happen in fairy tales?" wrote one user called Saludika.

"What a cold world this must be for the five children," said another, Lu Yao.