A 58-year-old man in Jingbian county in Shaanxi province was detained on Tuesday by police, who suspect him of burying his paralyzed mother alive.

The man's wife went to a local police station on Tuesday morning to report that her mother-in-law, 79, had not returned after her husband took her out on Saturday.

The son had laid the elderly woman on a flat-topped wheelbarrow and later buried her in an abandoned grave in the county, the police said on their WeChat account on Wednesday.

Under questioning, the man admitted what he had done and directed officers to the site, they said. The officers reported hearing the woman calling for help as they worked to unearth her from the 2-meter-deep grave.

She was hoisted out and sent to the hospital.