Chinese street children found dead in dumpster

The bodies of five street children have been found in a dumpster in southwest China after they climbed inside it to escape the night-time cold, state media reported on Sunday. The five boys aged about 10 died of carbon monoxide poisoning after apparently burning charcoal inside the trash container to keep warm, Xinhua news agency said. A trash collector discovered the bodies on Friday morning in the dumpster in the city of Bijie in Guizhou province, according to the Beijing News. Autopsies showed carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death, Xinhua quoted sources in a local branch of the ruling communist party as saying. It said leftover burnt charcoal was found inside the dumpster, indicating that the boys might have been burning charcoal for heat before they died. Calls to Bijie police and city officials went unanswered Sunday. The Friday night low temperature in the mountainous city was 6°C. Photos uploaded onto the Internet showed that the dumpster is about 1.5 metres long and 1.3 metres wide, and has an airtight lid, Xinhua reported. The tragedy has sparked an outcry on the net, it said.