A POLICE officer in Shanghai’s Jing’an District first began looking for the parents of eight children left in the Shanghai Children’s Hospital in 2012, but two still remain there.

When Zhao Gengyuan received the task — with information on their parents, including names, addresses and telephone numbers — he thought it would be an easy job to find family members. But in fact it proved extremely difficult, as most of the information was false.

Four children have been taken home by their families, one has been sent to a welfare house, one died and two are still living in the hospital, according to Oriental Morning Post.