A 16-year-old boy has been in a coma for a month after several people attacked him inside a detention center in East China's Anhui Province.

Wang Enhui was treated at the Anhui Emergency Medical Center with severe head injuries, the Anhui based Market Star Post reported Monday.

The intermediate people's court of Fuyang sentenced Wang to 10 years in prison for multiple robberies last month, and fined him 2,000 yuan ($298). However, three days before the sentence was handed down, Wang was allegedly beaten into a coma at Yingshang county detention center where he had been held since February, the paper said.

"The doctors said they are not sure whether my son could wake up," Wang Shouyu, the boy's father, told the Global Times Monday.

Wang's father said he received a call from his brother last month saying that Wang was sent to a local hospital for emergency treatment. He said he saw his son's body covered with scars and bruises.

He said he then went to the detention house to get an explanation but the head of the center surnamed Yang told him that his son's coma was caused by a heatstroke.

That explanation contradicted what the deputy director of Yingshang police bureau told him later.

The police official surnamed Huang told the father that, "his son was beaten by five people after seeing surveillance camera."

He said that Huang declined to let him see the surveillance video. Repeated calls to both Yang and Huang went unanswered Monday.