A drug addict has been charged with intentional homicide after her two young daughters starved to death when they were locked in their home and abandoned.

Le Yan, 22, of Jiangning District in Nanjing, capital of eastern China's Jiangsu Province, is currently staying at a hotel under police surveillance as she is three months pregnant, Jiangsu-based Modern Express reported yesterday.

As she is pregnant, Le will not face the death penalty if convicted of the deaths of the girls, who were aged one and three.

Her boyfriend, Li Wenbin, was jailed in February for allowing people to take drugs at the home, leaving Le in sole custody of the girls — the younger of whom was fathered by Li.

In late April, it is claimed that Le prepared a little food and water for her girls and then abandoned them at home.

The window latches were bound in clothing and the doors locked, imprisoning the girls.

Le's mother is said to have attempted to see her granddaughters on May 17 but couldn't get in. Le visited her mother that evening and promised to bring rice home, reported the Southern Weekend.

Community police say Le called on June 20, asking for help with living expenses. When officers visited her home the next day, no one was home, so they called a locksmith.

When officers entered the home they discovered the decomposing bodies of the girls.

At the time, Le was said to be in a fast-food restaurant. When a friend came and told her that her girls had been found dead, Le began weeping and was found there by police, Modern Express reported.

Post-mortems said that the little girls hadn't suffered from food poisoning or other physical injuries, and indicated that they died of starvation or illness.

Doctors who examined Le said that while she suffered from mental health problems related to her drug habit, she was in control of her actions, China Business View reported.

Having known her daughters were too young to take care of themselves, Le still didn't come back, prosecutors said.

Li was released from jail last month and said the loss of the girls haunted him.

"Every time I closed my eyes, I heard my elder daughter calling me and my younger one crying and knocking at the door," he told China Business View.

Li said he met Le in 2007 and they became a couple in 2010. He said Le was illiterate and worked as a nightclub hostess.

She was ordered to be detained for taking drugs in 2012.

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