A large amount of mercury was recently discovered in the body of a five-year-old boy from Kunming in southwestern China's Yunnan province, the local Info Daily reports. Lawyers in Beijing suspect the incident is criminal in nature and have asked the family to report to the police.

The boy first became sick earlier this year and after a week-long fever, his family found his bottom had become swollen. When his father pinched the swollen regions, two to three shiny metallic droplets oozed out.

In order to find out what the substance was, the father took the boy to hospital on Feb. 5. X-rays revealed an astronomically high amount of metal within the boy's body, which was later confirmed to be mercury. The amount of metal in the boy's blood and urine exceeded normal levels by 200 to 10,000 times, equivalent to the boy having ingested 80 to 100 mercury thermometers. The father was told that the mercury must be removed from his son's body as soon as possible to prevent damage to his neurological system.

The hospital, however, has not been able to devise a way to remove the mercury, since it has spread widely throughout his body and made surgery impossible. The father took his son to doctors in Beijing and Guangzhou hoping to find a solution. A doctor he consulted in Guangzhou told him the boy is beyond hope.

By March 17, they boy began complaining about stomach pains and a lack of appetite. His weight dropped from 36 kilograms to 30. The father has not been able to establish how the mercury found its way into his son's body. When he asked him, the boy told him that the kindergarten he had been attending feeds children mercury.

Since the only time his father is not looking after his son is when he goes to kindergarten, the father suspects that someone had directly injected the metal into his son's body.