A total of 42 Chinese kids have been dumped in the newly-opened "safe haven" for abandoned children in Jinan, Shandong province and shelter administrators said the number of children left in their care is expected to increase in the next few days.

Jinan's shelter for abandoned children, which opened on June 1, is just one of the 25 such shelters in China.

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The shelters aim to take care of children with physical or mental defects when they were born and whose parents do not have financial means to provide for their lifetime medications, sources said.

Four days after the shelter in Jinan opened, a speeding car made a quick stop near the door of the center and a passenger threw a six-year-old girl from the car. The car then sped away.

Workers at the center immediately attended to the girl, who was unconscious on the pavement. She had 2,600 yuan (about US$410) in her pocket and a note gave her birthdate as May 5, 2008.

Such scene maybe heartbreaking but shelter workers said children were abandoned outside the facility in different ways.

In another incident, unidentified persons stuffed a nine-year-old boy, nicknamed Momo, inside a bag and then left it just a few meters away from the shelter. Few minutes later, a resident took a seven-day old baby boy to the shelter after he found the baby lying on the road some 200 meters away from the center.

Another 23-day-old baby, who suffers from Down syndrome, was found sleeping in front of the shelter on the same day, sources said.

According to the Jinan Children's Welfare Institution, the institution that runs the newly-opened safe haven, said a total of 42 children were left in the center since its opening day but Deputy Directory Cai Hanming said the institution has been able to run the center well so far.

The two-floor shelter for abandoned children has 100 beds and workers that are on duty on different shifts.

Meanwhile, several safe havens around China have reported facing problems because the number of abandoned babies they received surpassed their expectations, and the arrival of children has not been ceasing since the centers were introduced in 2011.

Tagssafe haven, china safe haven, china abandoned children, center for abandoned children in china, safe haven in Jinan