Chinese police have arrested a young couple who buried an old woman alive in the mistaken belief she was dead after their car hit the 68-year-old, according to a report.

The couple, who had been at an all-night karaoke session, hit the woman while driving at night in the eastern province of Zhejiang last month, the official China Daily newspaper said.

"A witness said he heard someone crying and saw an elderly woman lying on the ground near (the car)," it cited a police officer as saying. "A man and a woman got out and put the elderly woman in the car, saying they would send her to hospital."

But, worried about being arrested for drunk driving and causing the accident and believing she was no longer alive, they buried her near the side of the road, the report added.

However, when police later found the woman's body they discovered she had still been alive when she was buried, and had then suffocated to death, the paper said.

"It's certain the woman was not dead when buried," a public security bureau official told China Daily on Wednesday. "Legal medical experts detected particles identical to those in the surrounding soil in her lungs, which indicates she was still breathing."

However he added police were still investigating the circumstances of the case. "Preliminary judgment of the cause of death is brain injury by the impact from the car and asphyxia," he said.

The story has been widely discussed on China's popular Twitter-like service Weibo, where it has ignited uproar for what some called the immorality of modern Chinese society.

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"Such things show that our society really has huge problems it is not facing," wrote one user.

"People of China, how have you come to this?" wrote another.

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China's economic boom and the growing disparity between the rich and poor have made changing social values a contentious topic, with some lamenting what they see as materialism and a get-rich-quick attitude replacing public morals.

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Last year, graphic video footage of a two-year-old child run over by a van and ignored by passersby in southern China sparked similar anger.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire

Victim Michelina Lewandowska, 27, leaves Leeds Crown Court on Dec. 6. "I still have nightmares," she said in a statement released Monday.

LONDON -- A man who buried his fiancee alive in a cardboard box because he was "bored" with her was found guilty of attempted murder Monday, British media reported.

Marcin Kasprzak's intended victim, Michelina Lewandowska, 27, was bound and gagged. She escaped by using the engagement ring he gave her to cut herself free and then dug herself out, The Guardian reported.

The newspaper said Kasprzak had attacked her with a Taser and then buried her in a forest near Huddersfield, England, in May. A court was told that he was "bored" of his fiancee and wanted custody of their son Jakub, 3.

'Hatred'
A statement by Lewandowska was read by a police officer outside the court where the hearing took place Monday, BBC News reported.

"For many years I loved Marcin Kasprzak very much. But after his horrific attack upon me my feelings towards him have turned to hatred," her statement said.

"I still have nightmares that Marcin will come back to find me and kill me. My only hope is that he can accept that what he did to me was very wrong," she added.

"I really hope that no-one will ever experience what I went through on that day in May, at the hands of a man whom I loved and trusted," she said.

• Woman buried alive: I used diamond ring to escape

The statement said that during her time "inside my shallow grave," she feared "my life was at an end."

"I prayed to God to help me to survive so that I could look after my young son. The thought of my son gave me the strength to fight my way out of the box and save myself," she added.

Kasprzak, who claimed he only meant to scare Lewandowksa, is due to be sentenced on Jan. 13.

Another man, Patryk Borys, 18, was found not guilty of attempted murder, the BBC said. He and Kasprzak had previously admitted kidnap and Kasprzak admitted possessing a prohibited weapon.

Sky News quoted a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service as describing the case as  "a heartless and calculated crime," adding that "Michelina was extremely lucky to escape with her life."