HANGZHOU - A woman in China who was vilified on the Internet after she stepped on her two-year-old daughter in public has explained her action.

More than 100 police reports have been made against Huang Xiao Xiao after the May 9 incident, which took place in Xiaoshan district in China's Zhejiang province, was captured on video.

Huang, 36, said she was frustrated after failing to find work that day. Using some of her last 20 yuan (S$4), she then bought her daughter a sausage.

The girl either found the sausage too hot or did not like the taste, and spat it out. Huang said that was when she lost it and pushed the toddler to the ground, and even stepped on her.

The divorced single mother from Hunan was living on the streets with her daughter after she fell out with her family and moved out of her parent's house.

Whenever potential employers saw her daughter, they refused to consider hiring her, according to a report first published by the police on Wechat on Tuesday, which was picked up by Chinese media.

Huang suffered from post-natal depression after giving birth to her daughter. Her ex-husband has custody of an older daughter.

She admitted that she would lose her temper and sometimes took it out on her daughter, but said she always regretted it later.

If there was food, she would always feed her daughter first while she drank water, she said.

Police said that welfare organisations are helping them. After seeing the video, Huang's ex-husband said he wanted custody of his younger daughter too.