Chinese netizens join efforts to save abused boy

BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Internet users have joined in efforts to save a boy in east China's Shandong province who was seriously injured in a shocking case of child abuse.

Scores of Internet users have expressed sympathy for 13-year-old Du Chuanwang, who suffered damage to his intestines and other organs when two of his adult coworkers inserted a working air pump into his anus as a "prank" on the morning of June 30.

Police in Xiajin county have detained the two workers involved and are conducting an investigation into the incident.

Qu's story was widely circulated on the Internet after an anchor from Shandong-based Qilu TV wrote about the incident via Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging site, on July 11.

"The two workers are so inhuman! Let's help the boy!" an Internet user with the screenname "Angeles City" wrote on Sina Weibo.

Internet users also sent donations to the boy, who comes from a poor single-parent family in Xiajin county. Du had been working in the garage as an apprentice after dropping out of school earlier this year.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, more than 400,000 yuan (63,492 U.S. dollars) in donations had been deposited in an account opened by Angel Mom, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization that has offered to help the boy.