Shock Over Chinese Indifference To Injured Tot

Chinese media and internet users have voiced outrage at a hit-and-run incident involving a two-year-old child left injured in the road as passers-by ignored her. The toddler was hit by a van in the city of Foshan. Surveillance footage showed the van hitting the little girl, pausing briefly while she was under the vehicle and then driving off, running over her legs.

The video then shows about a dozen passers-by, including cyclists, a motorcyclist and a woman and child, noticing the little girl lying injured in the street but ignoring her and walking on. Several minutes later she was hit by yet another vehicle. A rubbish collector finally stopped to helped her, but she was already seriously hurt. The child, named Yue Yue, was taken to hospital for emergency surgery but was later pronounced brain dead, according to reports.

The little girl had wandered off unattended while her mother went to collect some laundry. The drivers of both vehicles have now been arrested, but the incident has also triggered outcry among Chinese citizens.

Some commentators have said they understand the dilemma for the passers-by - that if they helped out they might incur costs or be blamed for the accident. Chinese media widely reported an incident from last January in which elderly men who fell in the street were left alone because people did not want to get involved. Those reports cited an earlier case in which a man who helped an injured elderly lady to hospital was then found by a court to be liable for some of her medical costs.

Another recent case which attracted considerable attention throughout China was one in which an elderly woman believed to have fallen in the road accused a man who stopped to help her of hitting her with his car. "There's been so many cases where people have been treated unjustly after doing good things," one Chinese commenter said.