This is the touching moment a couple were reunited with their son, who they believed had been dead for more than 30 years after a doctor in the hospital had stolen the newborn to give to a poor relative who could not have children.

Zhang Huaiyuan was snatched as a baby from his birth parents 33 years ago at a hospital in Zhejiang Province, China.

The doctor who helped deliver the baby, born prematurely on June 4 1991, told the parents it had not survived, but in reality, he had stolen the child to give to a couple who could not conceive.

The couple were in their 50s and lived in poor conditions in a village in Anhui Province, some 250 miles away from Zhang's real parents.

Because his adoptive father was disabled, the family faced financial hardship and Zhang was forced to drop out of school at just 17 to find work.

Little did he know his biological parents were wealthy merchants. He only learnt the shocking truth in 2023 after his adoptive father's death, when his adoptive mum decided to tell him out of fear he might be left without any family if she died as well.

Zhang then went on a search for his biological parents, and in May of this year, they were finally reunited.

Zhang's birth father, Li Shijie, at first could not believe the news.

But a DNA test quickly confirmed Zhang was indeed his second-born child who they were told had died during delivery.

Li told local media: 'Just one year after the birth of the first child, my wife became pregnant with our second.

'Because the first was born via caesarean section, it had not fully healed and her incision reopened during the sixth month of pregnancy.'

After one hour of waiting for his wife to come out of surgery, Li was told the horrible lie that the baby was stillborn.

He said: 'At that time, I felt like the sky was falling and I couldn't even stand steadily.

'We didn't even see the child. My wife was under general anaesthesia at the time and didn't know anything.'

Heart-warming footage of the day of the reunion shows a police officer escorting Zhang to the middle of the crowded village where his birth parents live.

They hugged each other and wept amid dozens of moved locals who had gathered to witness the family reunite after 33 long years.

At the celebration, Li presented his son with a bank card for an account containing CNY 1.2 million (GBP 130,214).

He said: 'I don't know how the child has been through all these years, whether he has eaten well, whether he has been bullied, how hard it must be for a child without parents.'

However, he was surprised to learn that Zhang had managed to do well for himself despite growing up in poverty.

After years of hard work, Zhang had opened a small factory and even married and became a parent himself.

Recently, the Li's visited Zhang's home in Tianjin where they met their daughter-in-law and nine-year-old grandson.

Li added: 'My poor child lived for over 30 years not knowing his own birthday. From this year on, our family will finally celebrate it together.'