A woman in south China's Guangdong Province was fined 500 yuan (US$64) yesterday after police discovered that her report on the kidnapping of her three-month old son was made-up, Chinese media reported today.

The alleged kidnapping took place around 11 AM on December 8 when the woman, surnamed Yuan, was waiting for a green-light at an intersection. Suddenly, a man in black rushed over to her and grabbed her son, she told the police in Nanshan District of Shenzhen City in the province.

The story was carried by newspapers and websites around the country yesterday because the crime site was only 100 meters away from a police station. Many used this news as an example to show the lack of safety in Shenzhen.

However, the police soon became suspicious of the kidnapping as security cameras on the site and inside the nearby residential area had no recordings of the event.

"There were no witnesses on the street, even though the crime happened during the daytime," said an official from the public security office in Nanshan.

Yuan confessed four days later that she made up the crime to avoid inquiries from her family, especially her husband, since she really gave the child to her lover, the police announced yesterday afternoon.

Yuan has been living separately from her husband for many years and only met him occasionally. After she delivered the baby, she didn't know for sure who the boy's father was because she had sexual relations with both her husband and her 40-year-old lover surnamed Sun.

In the beginning, she told her husband it was his son. But as the boy grew up, he increasingly looked like her lover, the report said.

"So I gave the boy to Sun on Friday, because he has no kin, only an adopted daughter," Yuan told the police. "I had to say the boy went missing because I couldn't tell my husband that he is not the real father. So I came up with the story."

Sun was fined 500 yuan and will be put into custody for 10 days. Yuan was also fined 500 yuan but she was exempted from custody because she just gave birth to a baby and Chinese law bans detaining women while they're still breastfeeding, said the report.

The police officer said that the city was shocked as it's the first street robbery case of an infant in Shenzhen's history.

"The case posed a negative impact on the city's image and may arouse public panic," the official said.

(Shanghai Daily December 15, 2006)