Chinese police save infant girl from pipe in public toilet

BEIJING — Police in Beijing rescued a newborn baby who was stuck face down in a public toilet.

The baby girl was in stable condition at a hospital in the Chinese capital, and authorities were trying to identify her parents, Beijing police said.

Unmarried Chinese mothers may abandon newborns because of social stigma associated with out-of-wedlock births. Sometimes parents discard children born with defects.

The local newspaper Beijing Times said police went to the public toilet in central Beijing Sunday after receiving a report of baby cries and spotted the child’s feet in the toilet pipe. A policeman slid his hand into the pipe to gently pull her out, the newspaper said.

Beijing police confirmed the report but gave few details. They said the infant did not appear to have any physical defects.

In 2013, rescuers in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang gingerly cut open a sewer pipe to save a baby boy, who his mother said accidentally slipped into the toilet where she delivered the child. Local media reports said the woman became pregnant after a one-night stand but hid the pregnancy from her parents. She later admitted to police she was the mother. TVJ

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