Shocking death of a 13-year-old boy in China whose body was found buried under a tarpaulin in a greenhouse and allegedly murdered by his peers.

In the final moments captured before the 13-year-old boy’s death, surveillance cameras showed him sitting on a scooter, surrounded by three classmates. An hour later, his phone was switched off with his relatives looking for it.

The next day, police in a village in northern China’s Hebei province made a chilling discovery: they found the boy’s body, buried under a tarp in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse.

His three teenage classmates have been taken into custody as suspects in the boy’s murder. The case has shocked China, sparking outrage and debate over the young age of the suspects.

Police in Handan City’s Feixiang District said in a statement on Sunday that the boy was killed on March 10 and that the suspects were arrested the next day. A police investigator told state broadcaster CCTV on Monday that the crime was premeditated, with the suspects digging the pit twice, once the day before and again on the day of the murder.

The boy’s relatives and their lawyer said in interviews with Chinese media and social media that the boy had long been a victim of bullying and was forced to give money to one of his classmates before he was murdered. They said police identified the suspected killers after reviewing surveillance footage and questioning classmates.

“He was beaten alive and his body was deformed, unrecognizable,” the 13-year-old’s father wrote on a Chinese social media site. “I hope the government will be fair, open and fair, punish them severely and that the murderers will pay with their lives!”

The case comes after a 2021 law change that lowered the age at which children can be charged with a crime from 14 to 12.