Elderly Chinese people committing suicide before end of the month to avoid province's looming ban on burials



Anhui province, China, is to ban all burials after June 1



Anyone who dies after the deadline will have to be cremated

Officials smash up coffins to drive the point home



Dozens of elderly Chinese people have been killing themselves to avoid a looming ban on burials.

The elderly suicides want to make sure their deaths are registered before a June 1 deadline, after which Anhui province authorities will close all cemeteries.

Anyone who dies after that date will have to be cremated because, authorities say, cemeteries are taking up too much space.

A father pushes his baby down a road past a pile of coffins smashed by officials to drive home the looming ban on burials brought in because cemeteries are taking up too much space in Anhui province, China

In order to drive the message home council officials have been visiting funeral parlours and smashing up coffins.



The draconian move has only hastened the rate of suicide as elderly people rush to guarantee one of the few remaining.

The new rules were published on April 1. Regional officials said: 'Before June 1 people can still consign their bodies for burial, but after that the only option offered will be cremation.'

In urban areas it has meant little change, but in rural areas the idea of cremation is abhorrent to many and there has been extreme opposition.

Local media has reported dozens of cases in which elderly people have killed themselves in order to qualify for a burial.

Zhang Wenying, 81, hanged herself on May 13. She left behind a note saying she had ended it all to make sure she could have a decent death, and she expected to be buried.

Another was 97-year-old Wu Lixiu, who died on May 12.

There have also been deaths in the provincial capital, and in three villages elders recorded at least seven people who have committed suicide to make sure they are buried instead of cremated.

'It's hard for the old people to accept the policy, so the government should give them more time to think about it, but not carry out the policy on such short notice,' said one elder.