Evidence for decays of hc to multipion final states

Using a sample of 2.59 × 10 7 ψ(2S) decays collected by the CLEO-c detector, we present results of a search for the decay chain ψ(2S) → π 0 h c , h c → n(π + π - )π 0 , n = 1, 2, 3. We observe no significant signals for n = 1 and n = 3 and set upper limits for the corresponding decay rates. First evidence for the decay h c → π + π - π + π - π 0 is presented, and a product branching fraction of B(ψ(2S) → h c π 0 ) × B(h c → 2(π + π - )π 0 ) = 1.88 +0.48+0.47 -0.45-0.30 × 10 -5 is measured. This result implies that h c → hadrons and h c → γη c have comparable rates, in agreement with expectations.