Chinese baby 'fell into sewage pipe accidentally'

The desperate mother of a newborn baby who got trapped in a sewer pipe ‘deeply regrets' what she did, local police have said.

The 22-year-old, who had kept her pregnancy secret, raised the alarm after she unexpectedly gave birth in the squat toilet of the apartment block where she lives in Jinhua, eastern China.

Being nursed back to health: The abandoned baby is being fed in hospital after firefighters rescued him from a sewage pipe. Pic/AFP

The baby was saved after firefighters cut out a section of the pipe and took it to a local hospital where the infant was carefully cut out.

The boy - named Baby No. 59 because of his incubator number in hospital - suffered minor injuries, but is said to be healthy.

The mother was present for the entire two-hour rescue, but did not admit giving birth until confronted by police later. An officer said: "She deeply regrets what she did."

The officer said the mother told officers she rushed to the toilet after she began to feel stomach pains and subsequently gave birth to the baby.

"She tried to grab something to help herself because there is too much blood," the police officer said. "She couldn't hold the baby anymore, and he slid into the sewage through the hole of the toilet."

During questioning, the mother said she never intended that the baby would end up in the toilet. She said after she was unable to retrieve the baby, she decided to flush the toilet to clear away the blood.

She then called the landlord, saying she had heard a strange sound.

2.2 kg The weight of the baby that was trapped in the sewage pipe
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