School denies responsibility for 4 drowned students   

光山4溺亡小学生皆为留守儿童 学校称无责任

1月7日下午，河南省光山县南向店乡天灯小学4名小学生在上学路上溺水身亡。事发后，学生所在学校称没有责任，当地政府已承诺每个学生给予1万元的安葬费。目前，光山县委、县政府已成立处理小组，事故的调查和善后工作正在进行中。

Xinyang (CNS) -- A primary school in central China's Henan Province has denied responsibility for four students who drowned Monday on their way to school, parents of the victims told reporters Tuesday.

The primary school in Nanxiangdian Village of Guangshan County said it had no part in the tragedy and that the local government had promised each pupil 10,000 yuan for funeral expenses, according to the parents.

The parents also said the local government wanted a rushed burial, which they strongly opposed.

Feng Yangfeng, mother of two victims, Yang Long, 9 and Yang Ke, 6, told reporters that two bodies were found in a small river about two kilometers from the school at around 3:30 p.m. The other two bodies were retrieved around 4:30 p.m.

Reporters found that the river, which is about seven to eight meters wide and two meters deep, had a thick layer of ice over it. A local villager said the four children may have been playing on the frozen surface before plunging through the ice.

Another villager said that prior to the tragedy some parents had demanded the school to send a vehicle to pick up pupils, but the school had said it was "impossible."

The other two victims are Cao Jianzhong, 7 and Wang Fan, also 7. All of them are "left-behind" children whose parents have migrated elsewhere to seek employment. Feng and her husband had returned just before the tragedy.

Local authorities said they are still investigating the case.