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More than 100,000  mourners turned out  to pay their last respects to a primary schoolteacher who threw herself in front of a speeding vehicle to save the lives of her pupils.

Yin Xuemei , 52, has become a national hero since her death, which prompted an online campaign for a statue to be erected in her honour.

State media reported Yin was accompanying her pupils across a road while on a school activity last week in Jintan city, Jiangsu , when a speeding car roared towards them.

Yin put herself in the path of the vehicle, pushing away six students before being struck and thrown 25 metres.

She died from her injuries on Tuesday, five days after the accident.

Her pupils escaped  serious  injury.

Police said the driver of the car  failed to see a sign warning motorists to slow down, according to the Yangzhou Evening News.

Thousands of people  crammed into the school where Ms Yin worked to attend a memorial service on Thursday.

Thousands more stood along the road outside the school to pay their respects as the funeral procession passed.

Xinhua reports most of the mourners were from  Jinhua  and  nearby cities.

Jintan Education Bureau official Xu Jihua   said Yin's  selfless act had touched many people around the country.

Beijing primary school principal Liu Yongsheng  said the  response to  Yin's  death represented a  a call for greater social values.

'There are some distortions in the direction of values in today's society,' he said.

'People are calling for greater concern in society at large and for others, and Ms Yin replied with her life.'

Yin is survived by her husband and two children.



Heroic schoolteacher mourned by 100,000