Children of 90-year-old woman arrested for 'trying to starve her to death after they got sick of looking after her'

Xiaoming Tsui survived thanks to neighbours who threw food to her window

She was only saved after an anonymous person posted a tip-off online

Her son and daughter have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder



A 90-year-old woman was locked away and left to starve to death by her own children, police say.

Xiaoming Tsui survived a month of captivity in her bedroom by drinking water and eating a few porridge oats neighbours were able to throw in while her children were out.

When police burst in at the end of last week to free her after a tip off posted online, her first words were: 'Please, feed me, feed me.'

Horrific: Ninety-year-old Xiaoming Tsui is helped to wash after nearly a month in captivity with no food after her children allegedly hatched a plan to starve her to death because they were tired of caring for her

Her daughter and son are now facing charges of attempted murder after police accused them of 'a cold and calculating plan to get rid of someone they found expensive and tiresome to deal with'.

A police spokesman said: 'The woman fell ill and to get rid of the problem of having to care for her, her children attempted to make her die from starvation in the locked room.

'They didn't send their mother any food, telling her it was so she didn't need the bathroom, and would allow no-one in to see her.'

Neighbours in Yangjuan village in Hunan, China, who realised Mrs Xiaoming was not being given much to eat were able on several occasions to pass oatmeal up to her through an open window.

Although they did not know that she was being given nothing, it is believed that one of them was the person who posted the anonymous online message which alerted police to her plight.

Emaciated: Her daughter and son are now facing charges of attempted murder after police accused them of 'a cold and calculating plan to get rid of someone they found expensive and tiresome to deal with'



'There had been friction between the old lady and her children for some time,' said the police spokesman.



'She was becoming an increasing burden to them and so they decided to kill her by starving her to death.

'Then they planned to tell the authorities that she simply stopped eating.'