徐州丰县八孩铁链女的遭遇引起网民公愤
Confusion over viral video of chained woman in hut stirs anger as Xuzhou officials say they have traced her
As people voiced growing concerns on websites for her welfare, officials in the city of Xuzhou and at county level in the northwestern province of Jiangsu issued several statements about the woman, who city authorities said has a husband and eight children.
However, the accounts given appeared contradictory, and some have rejected them online.
Earlier this week, authorities in Xuzhou said they had found out the woman, identified by county officials by her surname Yang, was actually called Xiaohuamei and was from a village in Yunnan province, in southwest China.
Two previous statements by county officials said the woman had been diagnosed with a mental illness and dismissed suggestions by social media users of human-trafficking.
On Monday Xuzhou authorities said the woman had been suffering from “abnormal speech and behaviour” in 1996 and was brought to Jiangsu by a fellow villager for medical treatment and to find a husband, but then went missing.
