WUHAN - Local government authorities confirmed Friday that seven children living at a child welfare center in Central China's Hubei province died from October 2012 to January 2013.

An initial investigation found that all had died of illness, refuting online rumors that they had been frozen to death at the center in Shiyan city, according to a joint investigation team comprised of health, civil affairs and judicial authorities organized up by the Shiyan municipal government.

The team was set up to further probe the children's deaths and determine whether the center was guilty of child abuse.

All seven children had been abandoned with serious congenital diseases, according to the team.

Of the seven, four had congenital heart disease, one was born without an anus, one had been born premature and one had cerebral palsy.

The center had sent the children to the hospital for medical treatments, but they all died between October 2012 and January 2013, after treatments failed.

Further investigation into this case is underway.