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An eight-year-old Chinese girl has been tied to a tree outside her grandparents' home for six years because she suffers from mental illness.

Zhao Ziyi’s grandparents said they first strapped her to the tree outside their home in 2010 after she became mentally ill and started to hit people, Henan Television reported.

The girl was filmed barefoot with ropes tied around her neck and chest when reporters visited her home, in Henan province, in September.

Footage from local media showed that she was sometimes freed and allowed to walk around near to their home, in a village in Luoyang, before being tied up again.

The youngster’s grandparents claimed Zhao had become “dangerous” after she suffered a series of high fevers in 2010.

The family said they had not been able to afford to send her to hospital for treatment.

Her grandfather told local media: “She would attack other children and older people.

“She is dangerous to others, so we have to tied her up here.”

It is not known where the girl, who does not go to school, slept at night, or whether she was untied and allowed to wash inside her grandparents’ home.

The couple are the allegedly the sole carers of Zhao and her two healthy younger brothers.

The children’s father is handicapped and works in a factory nearby, while the location of their mother - who is also disabled – is unknown.

Local officials told the South China Morning Post that they provided the family with a basic low-income allowance, but could do nothing to stop Zhao being tied to the tree.