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CRUEL parents who kept their daughter locked up in a ramshackle old house for six years are being investigated by police.

Zhang Qi, 24, was forced into the filthy, dilapidated building after her parents made her dump her boyfriend in 2009 because they didn’t approve of him.

But despite being told the relationship was over, Zhang tried several times to run away before her parents told everybody that she was mentally ill, and locked up for her own protection in the remote property in the village of Jingang in central China’s Hubei province.

“Her parents are powerful people here and everyone was told not to interfere,” villager Chow Jen said.

“Everyone knew about the girl in the house.”

“I moved away and only come back to visit occasionally so I don’t care about their threats, and that’s why I was happy to expose these pictures online after the local authorities refused to do anything.”

He said they had claimed she was mentally unstable and locking her up was for her own good.

Chow said: “Every time I came back for Chinese New Year I went to visit her secretly.

“On my latest visit though I saw her lying on a pile of straw with a couple of blankets and some food around her and I just decided enough was enough.

“Whether what they say about her having mental problems is true or not, she is being treated like an animal here and I’m sick of it so I contacted the police, and then posted the images online.”

So far neither police or officials have made any comment on the case.