BEIJING, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Nine people, including a maternity doctor, have been detained in connection with a baby-selling scandal in northwest China, officials said.
Three infants have so far been returned to their parents, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday.
Three county government officials in Shaanxi Province and the hospital's president and two senior managers have been fired.
Zhang Shuxia, deputy director of the maternity department of the Fuping County Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, is at the center of the scandal. She is alleged to have obtained custody of the newborns by falsely telling parents they had congenital diseases and convincing them to let her handle the children.
The mother of one of the children later suspected her baby had been kidnapped and contacted police. The boy was found Sunday morning in a township in neighboring Henan Province.
Fuping County authorities said Zhang sold the boy for $3,527 on July 17, the day after his birth, CNN reported. The boy was sold twice more within a 10-day period.
Two twin baby girls born in early July were found in two different provinces, county officials said.
Since news of the baby trafficking became public, police have received reports of 55 similar cases. Zhang is implicated in 26 of the incidents.
