Mother arrested in Spain after baby rescued from drain

A picture taken on June 23, 2013 shows the building where a babyboy was rescued by firefighters after being thrown into drains by his mother, in Alicante. The mother of the two-day-old boy was arrested by police after they found the baby in a plastic bag. AFP/ MANUEL LORENZO

MADRID – A Spanish woman has been arrested for attempted murder after her two-day old baby was discovered inside a building’s drains in Alicante and painstakingly rescued by firefighters, police said Sunday.

“A neighbour alerted the fire service that they could hear meowing coming from a waste water pipe, thinking that it was a cat that had become trapped,” police in Alicante, eastern Spain, said in a statement.

However, the firefighters and police discovered instead “the cries of a new born-baby and immediately proceeded to dislodge and save the child… who still had the umbilical cord attached” and was wrapped in plastic bags, the police said.

The baby, a boy weighing 2.1 kilograms (four pounds 10 ounces), was taken to a local hospital in serious condition, “with a fractured forearm and other injuries, but his life is not in danger,” the statement said.
It is believed that the child was trapped in the pipe for 40 hours.

After saving the boy, police arrested a 26-year-old woman, who lives in the building, for attempted murder.

She had been admitted to hospital “after saying that she had carried out an abortion at home”, police said.

The woman said she did not want the baby, but could not afford an abortion, police added.