BEIJING - Five street children were found dead in a dumpster on Friday in Southwest China's Guizhou province, media reports said Sunday.

The bodies of the five children, all boys around 10 years old, were found by a trash collector in a dumpster along Huandong Road in Qixingguan district, Bijie city, on Friday morning, according to the Beijing News.

The report said police have ruled out the possibility of murder. The boys were suspected to have suffocated as they tried to sleep in the dumpster to survive the cold night.

According to photos uploaded by netizens, the dumpster is about 1.5 meters long, 1.3 meters wide, and the lid could be airtight.

Further investigation is underway.

Bijie is a mountainous city located in northwest Guizhou, 200 km away from the provincial capital of Guiyang. It drizzled Friday night and the low temperature hit six degrees Celsius, according to the local weather report.