An estimated 10,000 children are abandoned each year in China, according to The Guardian.
A newborn baby girl who was found dumped inside a toilet in western Beijing has become one of these many children, according to The Huffington Post.
The crying baby, who was trapped in a pipe under a bathroom, was reportedly discovered by residents.
“The baby’s head was pointing downwards and her whole body had already fallen into the drain. We could only see the baby’s feet from the side,” Qian Feng, the police officer who rescued the baby, told the Beijing Times.
Newborn baby abandoned and found stuck head-first down a toilet in China https://t.co/wCvijeoG3i pic.twitter.com/9qHdfRMAsk
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) August 3, 2015
Initially, police reportedly thought they would have to destroy the toilet to reach the baby, but Qian reached into the sewer and was able to pull the newborn to safety. Police reportedly believe the newborn’s mother gave birth in the facility and then abandoned her.
Beijing police are reportedly searching for the mother of the baby. The baby girl is currently recovering in the hospital.
Chinese orphanages used to reportedly be filled mainly with unwanted girls under the country’s one-child policy, but now, most abandoned babies are sick or disabled, according to officials. The recent incident isn’t the first time a baby was abandoned in a bathroom.
A newborn baby in the eastern province of Zhejiang was reportedly rescued after being dropped down a toilet by his mother. Rescuers were forced to saw away a section of the pipe with the boy inside, according to Agence France-Presse.
