Police in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi are on the hunt for a woman they say gouged the eyes of a 6-year-old boy.
According to city officials in Linfen who spoke with the Washington Post, there is a 100,000 yuan (about $16,000) reward for anyone who turns her in.
Police didn't provide much detail on the victim, nor did they specify whether they had a suspect in custody. They did say that the boy said the woman did not have a Linfen accent, and that he was in the hospital being treated. He has permanently lost his ability to see.
An officer whose last name is Liu said that authorities were conducting an investigation, and until it came to a close, he couldn't offer a reason why the horrific event went down on Saturday.
"We are sparing no efforts trying to solve this case," he said.
Liu also reported that the 6-year-old's eyeballs were found at the site of the brutal attack.
The corneas were still intact, dashing previous speculations that the woman gouged out the young boy's corneas to sell on the human remains market.
Photos from the hospital in Taiyuan depict the ailing boy with thick white bandages wrapped around his face, covering where his eyes once were.
The boy-whose surname is Guo-was shown on a local news channel laying down in a hospital gurney, twitching with pain while his parents looked on, crying.
According to the Beijing Times, the parents said that the boy was walking on a path in a field when the woman grabbed him, and used a tool still unknown to the press to remove both of his eyes.
The Associated Press stated that the woman deceived the boy, coaxing him to go into the field under false pretenses.