The corpses of 21 babies were discovered near a bridge in Jining at the weekend. The Chinese state media reported that tags attached to some of the bodies indicated they had come from the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong's Jining Medical University.

The media have quoted local officials as saying that the two men, Zhu Zhenyu and Wang Zhijun, had privately reached agreements with relatives of the dead babies to dispose of the bodies appropriately, but instead they dumped them in the Guangfu River.

Violation of rules

Following public outrage over the incident, the authorities have sacked two managers and suspended the vice president of the hospital.

Gong Zhenhua, a spokesman for Jining city told the Xinhua news agency that hospital staff had violated regulations. "It exposes a serious loophole in the hospital management and indicates a lack of ethics and legal awareness," he said.

The authorities have ordered hospitals to immediately launch a general review of how babies' bodies are treated to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.

There was some concern that the river could have been contaminated because of the dumping of the bodies, but the Jining authorities said that it was not a source of drinking water for the city.

High abortion rate

It is not exactly clear how the infants and fetuses died, but some media reports suggested the fetuses had been aborted.

Abortion is common in China. At least 13 million pregnancies are terminated every year, in part because of the nation's "one-child policy". The rate of female feticide is also high because of the traditional preference for a male child.

du/AFP/AP/dpa

Editor: Anne Thomas