Five elementary school pupils from a rural area of Shaanxi Province were saved by local residents after they tried to commit suicide by drinking pesticides Saturday.

A mother cries in a hospital as a child in the background hides her face.

Of the five teens, two remained in hospital in stable condition, while the three others were discharged.

One of the pupils said a teacher had slapped them on the face, and this led to their act.

"Yang Meiling, our Chinese teacher, thought we had bullied a schoolmate and scolded us. But when we told her that we didn’t do that, she became very angry and slapped us on the face," the pupil said.

The teens became very depressed and one worte a suicide note.

They were worried that their parents would punish them, so they went to another village where they talked all night and made a suicide pact.

One enraged parent told a reporter that the kids were publicly abused by the teacher, and this was the reason behind the attempt.

He also mentioned that the parents had to pay the medical fees themselves.

Local authorities denied that the students had been abused by the teacher.

The vice director of the local education bureau, Fu Huiqiang, said that as far as he knew, "the teacher didn't abuse the pupils. You're putting too much pressure on her. And please don't say the students tried to commit suicide. The kids were just playing – they didn't mean to kill themselves."

"As soon as we heard about it, we set up an investigative panel and a work group to follow up on the case. The parents of the five pupils are pleased with our work," he added.

The investigation continues.