'Why is it dark?' asks Chinese boy blinded by woman attacker

A six-year-old Chinese boy who had his eyes gouged out does not know he has been blinded and asks his family why the sun has yet to rise. The young child was discovered by his parents in a field near his home in Shanxi province in the nation's northeast region.

Police are hunting for a woman who ruthlessly gouged out the boy's eyes and left him blind.

The boy told authorities he was approached by the unidentified woman and lured out into the open field, the report said. She spoke with a foreign accent and asked the child if anyone at his home played mahjong. She then ripped out the child's eyes with some kind of tool.

His parents discovered him hours later, covered in blood. His eyeball were discovered nearby. He was rushed to a local hospital, but then transferred to Shanxi Eye Hospital in Taiyuan the following day. Doctor could not save his eyesight.

The boy was being treated and not yet aware that he would be left blind for life. "He asks why the sky is always dark... and why the dawn still hasn't come," it quoted an uncle of the boy as saying. "We could only tell him that his eyes had some injury and have to be bandaged. (We tell him that) They will be fine after the bandage is removed. "It is such a difficult question to explain to him. It is the most heartbreaking thing," he said.