Video of ignored dying toddler shocks China

The graphic surveillance video of the incident on October 13 in Foshan city, Guandong province, shows a 2 year old girl run over by a van, which then drives off leaving her bleeding on a narrow street. Photo / supplied

Footage of a two-year-old girl being run over by a van and lying bleeding on the road as more than a dozen people pass her by has sparked outrage and soul searching in China.

The video surveillance footage posted widely on Chinese social media sites starts with the young girl being hit by a van in a narrow street in Foshan city.

Its driver stops for a short time before driving away, crushing the girl again beneath his rear wheels.

She is left bleeding on the road as passersby walk or cycle around her.

After the girl is hit by a second truck, a woman pulls her to the side of the road and her mother enters the shot.

Chinese hospital staff reportedly told media the girl was now on life support in a deep coma. However, some state media said she had died.

The video has been shared more than a million times on the Chinese social media site Youku.

It has prompted fiery debate and anguished posts about the state of Chinese society.

One user on Chinese micro-blogging website Weibo called the incident "the shame of the Chinese people", Reuters reported.

"Really, what is up with our society? I saw this and my heart went cold. Everyone needs to do some soul searching about ending this kind of indifference," the user said.

Other social media users blamed the apparent indifference to the dying girl on past prosecutions lodged against good samaritans in China.

So far, 4.4 million comments have been posted on Weibo, organised under the heading "Please end the cold-heartedness," reported the Associated Press.

High-profile law suits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help, the Guardian reported.