Firefighters in Jinhua have had to be called in to rescue a newborn baby stuck inside a sewage pipe after neighbours heard its anguished cries.
Chinese social media sites were inundated with calls for the baby’s mother to be found and severely punished after footage of the two-hour rescue was broadcast on state TV. One comment on Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, reads: “The parents who did this have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe.”
There are frequent reports in Chinese media of babies being abandoned, often shortly after birth, a problem attributed variously to young mothers unaware they were pregnant, the birth of an unwanted girl in a society which puts greater value on boys or China’s strict family planning rules. In this latest case, the baby, a boy, had to be taken to hospital still lodged inside the pipe. Once there, doctors carefully cut the pipe open to release him and have since pronounced him “stable”.
Police have identified the mother as a 22 year-old restaurant worker who lives in the apartment block in which the baby was found. Police became suspicious when they discovered baby toys in the childless woman’s apartment. The unnamed mother had kept the pregnancy secret from her family and claims she tried to deliver the baby on her own over a squat toilet when it slipped from her grasp. Unsure what to do next, she decided to attempt to cover her tracks.
Reports suggest the mother had been present during the rescue, although she did not make herself known to police in attendance. Police believe that she may initially have raised the alarm.
