Mother flushes newborn down a toilet in China, baby rescued after cries heard from a sewer

A newborn baby in north-west China, miraculously survived after being flushed down a toilet by his mother shortly after giving birth.

A passerby heard the newborn’s cries from a sewer in Suide County, in Shaanxi Province, and called emergency services who found him lying in a pool of filthy water.

The boy, nicknamed Xiaoxiao, meaning 'teeny tiny', survived the ordeal with just a few scratches, and is now recovering in hospital while police have launched a hunt to find his mother.

'It was really a race against time because somebody could have flushed something down the sewer again at any stage, or the baby might have turned over and ended up face first in the filthy water and drowned,' Suide County fire department squad leader Li Zhi said.

'But we didn't want to break the pipe because we thought could have hurt or even kill the baby.

'So we had to use a mixture of tools in order to ease him towards the opening and then pull him out.

'He still had the umbilical cord attached and it had obviously been clumsily cut.'

The newborn was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was cleaned and fed, but otherwise did not need further medical care.

Doctors say Xiaoxiao is perfectly healthy and they do not expect him to suffer any complications because of him suffering a flushing into the sewer.

Attending physician Li Zhiping said: 'The child survived the ordeal surprisingly unscathed. I can't think of any similar case where a child survived being effectively flushed down the toilet.'

Fire department officials have volunteered to be Xiaoxiao’s temporary parents, while an investigation has been launched to trace the mother, and why had she flushed him down a sewer.

If the mother is found, she will face possible child abuse and neglect charges.

This is not the first time babies have been abandoned in China by flushing them down toilets and sewers.