A newborn baby girl was abandoned in a Beijing public toilet and fell head-first down the pipe, reports said Monday, after her mother apparently gave birth in the facility.
Members of the public were alerted by the baby’s cries, the Beijing Times reported, and a police officer reached down the pipe to extract the girl.
She was taken to a hospital in the capital but did not appear to have any physical disabilities, according to the report.
Blood around the lavatory bowl and the fact that her parents did not report her trapped indicated that she had been born in the toilet and abandoned there, it said, adding that police were trying to identify her parents.
Chinese babies born out of wedlock are sometimes abandoned because of social and financial pressures. The country’s one-child policy can also mean heavy fines for couples who have more than one baby.
Incidents involving suffering infants have scandalised the Chinese public in recent years.
In May 2013, a newborn baby in the eastern province of Zhejiang survived after being dropped down a toilet conduit by the mother. On that occasion the boy became stuck and rescuers had to saw away a section of the pipe with him inside.
The case triggered widespread fury but was later declared an accident.