Two reporters were fired in northwestern China for making up a story about two cooked children's arms found at a dump in a bag with ginger, chili and other ingredients, a newspaper reported Friday.

The reporters, Tang Yuanzhi and Lu Jinfeng, published the report on April 4 in the Lanzhou Morning Post in Gansu province, and the story was quickly picked up by Hong Kong media. The report quoted unidentified police as saying the limbs were recently cooked.

But a day after the report, Lanzhou police said the arms were from a body used by a class at the Gansu College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the South China Morning Post reported. The arms were accidentally thrown in the trash, and police said no cooking ingredients were found with the limbs, the paper reported.

The Post quoted a statement by the Gansu provincial government as saying the reporters were fired "to curb false news in journalism and propaganda."