Toddler dies in hit-and-run in China

BEIJING – A Chinese toddler who was ignored by 18 passers-by as she lay critically injured in the street after being run over by two vehicles has died, the hospital treating her said Friday.

Surveillance camera footage of people walking past the two-year-old girl, nicknamed Yue Yue, as she lay bleeding and unconscious sparked a wave of condemnation and soul-searching on China’s hugely popular social networking sites.

A rubbish collector who finally moved the girl to the side of the street in the southern Chinese city of Foshan was hailed as a national hero, but the incident also led many online commentators to question the state of Chinese morality.

“Yue Yue died of systemic organ failure,” a spokesman from the hospital treating her told AFP, adding that no expense had been spared to try to save the girl, whose parents are migrant workers.

Doctors had earlier said Yue Yue, who had been in a coma since the October 13 incident, was unlikely to survive.

The death of Yue Yue was one of the most popular topics on China’s weibos — microblogging sites similar to Twitter — on Friday as people expressed sorrow and anger over the incident.

“Farewell to little Yue Yue. There are no cars in heaven,” wrote one microblogger on Sina’s weibo.

“Yue Yue was consumed for a week by the fake kindness of netizens… All the wishes are fake and only the 18 passers-by are real. Farewell, and do not be born in China in your next life,” another weibo user wrote.

Police have detained the drivers of both vehicles involved in the incident.