SANTIAGO, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — About 75.3 percent of Chilean children have been victims of domestic violence, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Thursday.

Among the Chilean children who are exposed to maltreatment, 53.8 percent are victims of physical violence and 25.9 percent are victims of grave physical violence, the UNICEF said.

The statement was made by UNICEF representative to Chile Gary Stahl, who was accompanied by Chile’s assistant police director Javiera Blanco and the police’s family protection director Colonel Patricia Rojas.

Stahl said violence against children was not only present in the poorest social classes, but at all social levels.

The violence against children “occurs at all social levels and everybody should denounce it,” Stahl said.

Blanco said the police have investigated more than 7,000 cases of child abuse, which represented almost 20 cases every day.

Meanwhile, Rojas said that “as long as citizens report these cases around them, we will be able to carry out the needed action.”

Complaints of child abuse increased from two to three cases per day to 12 cases per day because of the public uproar caused by the report on Tuesday of the murder of a boy by his stepfather, Rojas said.