Families accuse police of negligence. The time of death contradicts eyewitness accounts, and families believe someone is lying. Police says death is accidental.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The investigation in the death of five children ended in a verdict of accidental drowning. Their bodies were found four days after they disappeared in the eastern province of  Zhejiang. The families have rejected the ruling, arguing instead that the children died in a botched child-snatching attempt. In China child abduction has become a major problem; minors are often taken for adoption or organ trafficking.

China’s official news agency Xinhua reported that the bodies of the five children were recovered from a pond located about 500 metres from their family home, where they and their parents had returned to for Lunar New Year. The two boys and three girls were the children of two brothers from the village, who had moved to Gansu province for work.

Jin Xianshun , a spokesman for the county's Public Security Bureau, said there were no signs of outside interference with the children's bodies. The evidence suggests that the children slipped whilst struggling to help one another out of the pond, such as some footprints and handprints on one edge of the pond. The autopsy found water in their lungs and stomachs, the telltale sign of drowning.

“The investigation results can only prove the kids died of drowning. But we still can't believe it's a simple accidental drowning," said Cai Xiuding, a cousin of the bereaved fathers.

“The police said they died at 2.30 pm.” That “means our children all died only half an hour after they left home.” However, they “had told their grandmother they were going to visit a girlfriend who lives in another village that is farther than a 30-minute walk from our village.” Yet, the villagers there told us they did see the kids” who “left soon afterwards since the girl they wanted to visit was out of town. I don't know who is lying, the villagers or the police,” he said.

Child trafficking is a major problem in modern China. Some are abducted for their organs; others are kidnapped for adoption by rich, childless couples. Whatever the case, children are disappearing at an alarming rate. Even the central government has become aware of the problem and has increased the punishment, which now includes the death penalty.

• china
• children
• drowning
• abduction
• trafficking
• organs
• adoption