See the heartbreaking moment a mourning cat tried to revive her kittens after they were stabbed and decapitated by a cruel killer.

Photos were shared online by a woman named only as Yang, 68, who has been taking care of homeless cats in her neighbourhood for more than 10 years.

According to her, the kittens were not even able to open their eyes yet before one was reportedly decapitated and the other had its stomach sliced open.

The mother cat refused to leave their side - seemingly distraught at the murder of her offspring.

Yang said she spotted the two kittens and their mum one day and decided to shelter them in a box, which she placed in a roadside garden near her home.

The kittens were still unable to run, and Yang left them in a box at around 7am.
But when she returned at noon, she found the mum pacing near her two dead kittens and meowing by their carcasses.

Yang said she was shocked to find that one kitten had had its head cut off, while the other was killed after someone had stabbed it in the stomach.

She often feeds the cats and also provides them with simple boxes for shelter whenever they turn up in her residential community in Xi'an, capital of north-west China's Shaanxi Province.
But her love of cats is not shared by many of the locals, she said, as many see the strays as pests that bring disease.

Yang said she was unable to find surveillance footage of the apparent deliberate killing, and local police also turned her away, perhaps due to China not having laws against the abuse of stray animals.

Yang was quoted as saying:
Yang has now buried the kittens in the ground.