Mother disappears, leaving kids at restaurant
LUAN A couple in the city of Luan in China's Anhui province have disappeared after the mother left their three children at a restaurant.
The woman had taken her nine-year-old daughter and her two-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, to the restaurant to attend a banquet, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported, quoting Chinese news sources.
Neither she nor their father could be found or contacted after that.
The kids' relatives apparently didn't want to take them in.
One of their aunts, who was also at the banquet, took them to the home of an uncle who lived nearby.
But the uncle refused to meet the kids or offer them a place to stay, according to the report.
The children were soon picked up by the police, who called their parents, only to find that both had turned off their mobile phones.
Officers contacted another uncle and the children's maternal grandfather but both men refused to take in the children, insisting that caring for them was not their responsibility.
The children were then taken to the home of their paternal grandfather. But the old man didn't open the door, pretending not to be at home.
When officers peered through the window, they saw him on his bed.
The three children called out to him from outside the door, but he did not open it.
The local children's welfare institute at first said they could not accept the children since they still had traceable direct relatives.
But they were finally allowed to stay temporarily.
Police officers said they would continue to help the children find a home. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, ANHUINEWS.COM
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