Chinese police find 28 baby girls hidden in suitcases on bus

The Associated Press

BEIJING -- Police found 28 baby girls hidden in suitcases aboard a long-distance bus in southern China, apparently being smuggled for sale, a police officer and a newspaper said Saturday.

Officers acting on a tip made the discovery Monday when the bus stopped at an expressway toll plaza in Binyang, a town in the Guangxi region, the Beijing Morning News said. Guangxi, on China's southern coast west of Hong Kong, is one of the country's poorest areas.

An officer of the Guangxi traffic police in Binyang confirmed the discovery of the babies. Reached by telephone, she wouldn't give her name or other details.

Chinese authorities say an unknown number of children are abducted every year for sale to childless families. Older girls are sometimes sold as brides in rural areas with fewer women.

The babies found in Guangxi were all under three months old, and one died after they were found, the Beijing Morning News said. It said the smugglers might have drugged them to keep them from crying and being discovered.

The babies apparently were being smuggled for sale, though police didn't know where they had come from or where they were being taken, the newspaper said. It said the bus was bound from Yulin, a rural district of Guangxi, to the eastern province of Anhui.

No relatives have claimed them, the report said.