Thousands held a candlelight vigil in Changchun in northern China to mourn a two-month-old boy who was strangled by a carjacker in a case that has appalled the whole country.
Two-month-old Xu Haobo was asleep in the back seat of his parent’s SUV early on Monday morning when his father left him in the car, and ran into a shop the family owned to turn on the heating. When he came out, the car was gone, prompting a manhunt involving 3,500 police.
Former labour camp inmate Zhou Xijun (48) turned himself in the following day, saying he had driven to Gongzhuling county, about 60 kilometres southwest of Changchun, where he strangled the baby and buried him in snow.
Within an hour of the news of the child’s death, there were 60,000 messages of sympathy on the Twitter-style Weibo service, many calling for Mr Zhou’s swift execution.
“How can such a cruel person exist in the world?” wrote one microblogger.
“It is so shocking. How could he do this? Did he hesitate at all when he saw the baby? Rest well, little baby, heaven is safer than earth,” wrote another.
The baby’s mother had a heart attack when she was informed of her child’s death and is in a local hospital, state media reported.
