Five children who were found dead in a pond in Tiantai county of Zhejiang province on Feb 22, four days after they were reported missing, were drowned by accident, the county government confirmed yesterday.

Four of the deceased - Cai Kangni, 13, Cai Yani, 12, Cai Danni, 10 and Cai Binbin, 9 - were siblings. The fifth, Cai Songtao, 7, was their cousin.

The three girls and two boys had gone out to play the afternoon of Feb 18, the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, and never returned.

After they were reported missing, local police launched a massive search for the children and the media broadcast photographs of the children on television, in newspapers and on the Internet, with hundreds of netizens leaving messages of consolation.

On Feb 22, a worker who was draining water from the fishfarm pond, situated a stone's throw from the children's home, discovered the bodies.

With the government confirming the children's death due to drowning as an accident, questions over the safety of rural children in the country are once again at the forefront.

On Sept 27 last year, seven kids accidentally drowned in an abandoned ceramic factory in Mairen village of Zhumadian, Henan province, Xinhua reported.

There are about 300 million children in China and more than 60,000 are killed every year in accidents, averaging an astonishing 150 deaths per day, according to figures released during the second National Symposium on the Prevention of Child Injury in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, last year.