The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday.

Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of of Li Shufen.

An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her death.

A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her maidenhead was still complete.

The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and two others.

Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu.

The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged.

No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added.

Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into water.

The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.

This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials.

Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be decided.

controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive protest and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county government and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. Dozens of government vehicles were smashed.

Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and other issues.

He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security.

Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests their first priority and to deal with public grievances.

The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They were: Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law committee of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's public security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)