Authorities in Chongyi County, Jiangxi Province, seized seven beggars and mental patients and dumped them in a remote place to improve the downtown outlook, the Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.

Five of them are still missing, the newspaper said, adding that the other two returned to Chongyi days after a Civil Affairs Bureau worker and four police assistants dumped them in a remote part of neighboring Dayu County on January 21.

One of the returned victims, a beggar identified as A Liao, said he was sleeping near a supermarket that day when a truck pulled up. Several men got out and forced him onto the vehicle.

The truck stopped after a long drive. During the trip, a civil affairs worker gave them each a pack of biscuits, A Liao said. They forced the seven people off, and turned back, he recalled.

Guo dongxiang, 61, is one of those missing. She reportedly has been suffering from mental problems for 20-plus years.

Her son, Wu Longsheng, said his mother left home about 3 PM that day and never returned.

A bureau official said the civil affairs and public security departments did it to ensure the downtown is free of eyesores as instructed by the county government.

"There's no center for vagrants here, so we handled it as in the past," the paper quoted a bureau official as saying.

(Eastday.com June 9, 2005)