Girl loses memory after being hit by falling tortoise

A Chinese girl was hospitalised after she was hit on the head by a pregnant tortoise. Cheng Cheng, 12, was walking with her aunt Ling Lang at Chongqing in China when she was struck on the head by the tortoise.

Lang said: "I was walking and suddenly I heard a scream from my niece who was behind me and I looked round to see her lying on the ground covered with blood. There was a tortoise lying beside her and I could see it had hit her on the head."

The owner of a grocery store who witnessed the incident said they saw the girl was hit by a falling black object travelling at speed and fell onto the ground unconscious, and when he ran over he realised the object was a tortoise.



The local children's hospital said when the girl was sent in she was diagnosed with concussion and was awake and conscious but very quiet. Doctor Zhuo Xuan said: "She does not have any memory of what happened to her or anything about her. We believe the amnesia will only be short lived but at the moment she can't remember anything."

Locals say the tortoise had survived the initial fall and been placed in a cardboard box where it had laid several eggs but then died from its injuries. The dead tortoise has been frozen pending forensic examination and police have questioned all of the people living in a nearby apartment building but all have denied owning it.

A police spokesman said: "Given the force of the blow this tortoise, which weighed three pounds must have been thrown from a reasonable height and we have questioned 16 flat owners all of whom have denied responsibility." The injured girl's father, Liu Xingbing, said: "I am furious at this irresponsible behaviour. If I do not have a confession from the guilty tortoise thrower I will sue everybody in the building."