A TODDLER girl was severely attacked when she went to pick up a parcel for her mother in Bao’an District on Sunday, it was reported yesterday.

The 5-year-old girl, identified as Xixi, sustains life-threatening injuries and is being treated at a hospital. Doctors said Xixi’s condition is not promising.

The woman who assaulted the girl was detained by police the same day. The woman, identified as Liu, is said to have a mental illness, but no evidential medical records have been found.

Xixi’s mother received a phone call Sunday from a deliveryman, who told her to collect a parcel. Xixi offered to help her mother pick up the parcel and the mother let her go as she thought it was safe enough for the girl to go downstairs alone.

When Xixi did not come back home after a few minutes, the mother rushed downstairs and saw her daughter laying motionlessly on the ground near a garbage dump site with injuries around her neck, back, elbows and head. Xixi did not respond to her mother’s calls and seemed unconscious. She immediately took Xixi to Bao’an People’s Hospital.

Xixi’s doctor said the girl’s condition was worsening.

According to neighbors, the woman lived in another building with her family. According to the woman’s father, surnamed Liu, the woman was born with bad hearing and gradually became introverted. The woman began suffering from depression because she never could communicate with people.

In April 2012, the woman jumped out of a window of her fourth-floor room and became physically disabled.

The father said that they planned to take the woman to a mental hospital on the day of the incident, but the woman sneaked out of her room at noon while her mother was taking a nap.

Staff with the subdistrict office said they were not sure if the woman was a registered mental patient. Police are investigating. (Zhang Qian)