A two-year-old Chinese girl who was run over by two separate vehicles and ignored by bystanders as she lay critically injured has died, one week after the accident and after days of outrage and introspection across Chinese society.

The hospital in Guandong province that had been treating the girl, known as Yue Yue, said she died early Friday of brain and organ failure.

Closed-circuit television footage of the incident, aired on television and posted on the Internet, showed that at least 18 passers-by walked or bicycled past on the busy market street without stopping to help the child.

Chinese media and social networking sites have been full of sorrow and anger at her death.

Many online commentators say China has become too cold-hearted in its rapid drive for economic prosperity.

Others say the case highlights the need for a law to protect people who help strangers in distress. Several highly publicized lawsuits in China have ended with such people being ordered to pay large fines.

Police have tracked down and arrested the drivers of both vehicles that struck the girl.