7 held for attempting to kill twins

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Six members of a family have been detained in Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province after trying to abandon prematurely born twins, resulting in the death of one of them.

7 held for attempting to kill twins

The girl was under the treatment in hospital. 

The lactating mother of the twins however has not been detained but will be charged with murder along with the other six, all of whom hail from Guizhou Province, Qianjiang Evening News reported.

The 23-year-old mother, surnamed Wu, gave birth to a 950-gram girl and an 880-gram boy on June 19 after being pregnant for only 27 weeks. But the twins suffered from serious complications and were put on infant ventilators.

They were told to raise 200,000 yuan (US$32,219) for medical treatment.

The doctors also did not rule the possibility of sequelae even after treatment.

Hard pressed for money, they decided to abandon the newborns.

After discussing it with members of the family, they approached two cousins from the mother's side and asked them to leave the babies on a mountain.

But the two men, who were on a motorcycle, were stopped by the police on June 25 evening and their entire plan was uncovered.

Police immediately called for an ambulance, but the medics found the boy had already dead while the girl was cold and very weak.

She was rushed to the hospital where she is recovering.

Police charged seven members of the family with intentional homicide, rather than for the offense of abandonment.

"They knew what they were doing would lead to the death of the two infants, but still went ahead with it. More seriously, one of the babies died because of them," police said.

Wu regretted the decision which led to the death of her son and for causing problems to her relatives.

She had only seen her twins once.

"My only wish now is to see my daughter safe," she said.

Police and many Wenzhou citizens have donated for the girl's treatment.

A safe haven has been built in Wenzhou where babies can be left behind instead of abandoning them elsewhere, but at the time of the incident it was still to open, the newspaper said.

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