A report in Beijing News Wednesday detailed the bizarre rescue of two girls, who had been held captive in a cellar for months in Hubei province.

An electronics repairman in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, on May 14 found a note inside a TV set which said: 'Help, I have been detained underground for more than one year.' The note gave an address in the village of Shengying, where police found the two naked and chained girls in the basement. One of them had been missing for nearly a year.

The owner of the basement, it turned out, had a week earlier been detained on charges of rape in a separate case, Beijing News reported.

A Shengying man identified in the article only as Zhou, whose 19-year-old daughter disappeared in July last year, said a man by the name of Du called him to ask, 'Has your daughter disappeared?'

Three hours later, Zhou and the police found his lost daughter in the basement, less than 200 meters from his home, the article said. The police also found another girl, age 16, in the basement. Few details were known about the younger girl, except that she lived several kilometers away from Shengying.

It appears the older girl had put the note in the TV before it was taken away for repairs.

Du told reporters that a friend of his who works for a home-appliance store found the note in a TV set he was repairing. It was folded many times and contained a handwritten map with the location of the cellar marked. It also gave the name, telephone number and home address of Zhou's daughter.

Du said his friend thought the note was a joke and wanted to throw it away. However, Du thought it might be true and asked his friend for the note. Du's son suggested he call the phone number on the note.

According to a follow-up article in the Beijing News Thursday, Du's son had on one occasion been bullied on his way home from school and was angry that no one helped him. Therefore he was eager for his father to help the girls.

The note led Zhou and the police to the home of Zeng Xiangbao, who had already been detained in a separate rape case. Zhou and the police searched Zeng's two-storey building and eventually found the entrance of the basement and the two girls in chains.

The report said the girls had subsisted on instant noodles supplied by Zeng, but were badly malnourished. They were also very dirty and their hair smelled even after four washings, the report said. The report said the girls had previously attempted to smuggle notes in instant-noodle packages but those hadn't drawn any responses.

Zeng, 39, divorced last year, the report said. Police declined to disclose more details.

A Wuhan Public Security Bureau official, who identified himself as Mr. Liu confirmed the case and said: 'We are still investigating the case and it is not closed yet.' He declined to provide more details.

The Thursday Beijing News article quoted a Wuhan PSB official as saying that the two girls are under police protection, saying, 'The girls are unmarried and the case involves privacy, which makes us very cautious.'

The case has drawn expressions of outrage online. One commenter said: 'Why are human beings so disturbed? Harming others for their own selfish desires?'

Another said, 'The most terrible thing is that those earlier notes were ignored.'

Gao Sen

• wednesday [´wenzdi] n.星期三 (初中英语单词)
• rescue [´reskju:] vt.&n.救援；挽救 (初中英语单词)
• captive [´kæptiv] n.俘虏；捕获物 (初中英语单词)
• cellar [´selə] n.地窑，地下室 (初中英语单词)
• missing [´misiŋ] a.缺掉的；失踪的 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
• security [si´kjuəriti] n.安全；证券；抵押品 (初中英语单词)
• bureau [´bjuərəu] n.局；编辑部；事务所 (初中英语单词)
• protection [prə´tekʃən] n.警戒；护照；通行证 (初中英语单词)
• selfish [´selfiʃ] a.自私的，利己的 (初中英语单词)
• underground [,ʌndə´graund] ad.&a.地下(的) (高中英语单词)
• location [ləu´keiʃən] n.定位；位置；地方 (高中英语单词)
• previously [´pri:viəsli] ad.预先；以前 (高中英语单词)
• disclose [dis´kləuz] vt.揭露；透露；泄露 (高中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• outrage [´aut,reidʒ] n.残暴 vt.虐待；伤害 (高中英语单词)
• basement [´beismənt] n.地下室 (英语四级单词)
• eventually [i´ventʃuəli] ad.最后，终于 (英语四级单词)
• unmarried [,ʌn´mærid] a.未婚的，独身的 (英语四级单词)
• privacy [´praivəsi, -pri] n.隐退；独处；秘密 (英语四级单词)
• smuggle [´smʌg(ə)l] v.走私；偷偷拿出(进) (英语六级单词)