Suicides in Anqing reported to be a reaction to new regulations ordering that those who die after 1 June should be cremated
A woman by her mother’s grave in Dongtan: in recent years local governments across China have demolished tombs as part of a national campaign encouraging cremation. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA
Six elderly people in China are said to have killed themselves to ensure they died before new regulations banning coffin burials come into force, a newspaper has reported.
China has a tradition dating back thousands of years of ancestor worship, which usually requires families to bury their relatives and construct a tomb.
But in recent years local governments across the country have demolished tombs as part of a national campaign encouraging cremation, in an attempt to save on limited land resources.
