Heartbreaking images have emerged of a cat mourning the death of her kittens, which were stabbed in China.

One was even decapitated by a brutal killer.

The kittens, which were too young even to open their eyes, were discovered by an old lady who has been taking care of homeless cats in the city of Xi'an for many years.

The mourning mother cat caresses her dead kitten. It is an image which only the most heartless could ignore

Mrs Yang often feeds the cats and provides them with boxes for shelter whenever they turn up.

But her love of cats is not shared by many of the locals, many of whom blame the strays for bringing diseases or just consider them pests.

Mrs Yang spotted two kittens and their mother one day and gave them a box, which she placed in a roadside garden near her home.

The cat appears to be trying to breathe life back into her kittens despite their appalling injuries

She left them in the box at around 7am but when she returned five hours later she discovered the heartbreaking scene as the mother paced back and forth, meowing incessantly near her two dead kittens.

Mrs Yang said she was shocked to find that one kitten had had its head cut off, while the other had been stabbed it in the stomach.

Mrs Yang tries to comfort the mother as she mourns her brutally murdered kittens

The mother cat refused to leave, seemingly distraught at her murdered offspring.

Mrs Yang said there was no surveillance footage of the cat killer and local police had shown no interest in helping her find the culprit.

She said: 'The kittens were obviously killed, and by a knife. How could anyone be so cruel?'

Mrs Yang has buried the kittens nearby but their mother's grief will never go away.