A classmate of a college student who drowned on Sunday had to make 56 calls to the victim's relatives before he could overcome their suspicions and persuade one to come to the site, Wuhan Evening News reported on Tuesday.

The student, who only gave his name as Xiao, immediately called the father of his classmate, surnamed Chi, after Chi drowned while playing in a lake in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Sunday evening, but the father insisted Xiao was a swindler after many calls and would not come to the site.

Xiao then made calls to Chi's other relatives that night, including his cousins, and at last a female cousin agreed to come to the police station to check.

Chi's family, including his father, a farmer living in East China's Fujian province, burst into tears after they got verification from police that Chi was dead, the report said.

Zhou Yunqing, a sociology professor at Wuhan University, was quoted by Wuhan Evening News as saying declining trust between people in society is the reason Chi's family refused to believe Xiao at first.