Autopsy to shed light on death of student

An autopsy is being conducted on a middle school student alleged to have fallen to his death on Saturday, with no evidence having been found so far to suggest he was physically abused, officials in Luzhou, Sichuan province, said at a news conference on Thursday.

He Shaopeng, deputy mayor and public security bureau director of Luzhou, said the chest and belly of the student's body had been cut open and lacerations were found in his liver and spleen.

The publicity department of Luxian - a county under the administration of Luzhou - said on Wednesday that a 14-year-old male student of Taifu Middle School in Taifu town was found dead outside his dormitory building at about 6 am on Saturday.

The department stated that local police did not think the boy had been murdered after initial investigations, but this caused public outcry, with many people suspecting that the boy was beaten to death by five other students who are children of local officials.

Mao Handong, a police officer with Luzhou public security bureau, said at the conference that none of the officials' children were proved to have been classmates with, or to have known of, the deceased student.

Lyu Yugang, director of the Ministry of Education's basic education department, said at a conference in Beijing on Thursday that he felt sorry for the death of the student and had requested education departments in Sichuan to assist local authorities in discovering the cause of the student's death and reporting to the ministry in a timely manner.

A video obtained by Lyu Qingfu, a reporter at Xinhua News Agency, showed the mother of the deceased student visiting a crematory and cutting clothes off her son's body to expose a large purple area on his back and wounds on both hands and elbows, suggesting that the boy might have been beaten to death.

People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, said in an opinion piece on its WeChat account on Wednesday that local governments should release information in a timely and accurately manner in emergency situations.

"Timely and accurate information, as well as an authoritative and convincing autopsy report, will help clarify facts and dispel rumors," it said.

Contact the writers at zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn