Chinese newborn baby flushed alive down toilet pipe

A newborn infant has been rescued from a toilet pipe in eastern China after being allegedly flushed down by his parents.

Firefighters plucked the baby boy from a pipe section right under the toilet commode. The pipe was cut away piece by piece to reveal the screaming newborn, who was wedged in tights.

On Saturday, residents of an apartment block in Jinhua in China's wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang reported the sounds of a baby crying that were coming from the sewage. The child was found in the pipe and rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors carefully cut around the boy to free him from the remains of the pipe.

The infant is reported to be in stable condition. An investigation is under way to identify his parents.
Chinese media often report on abandoned babies, left for dead shortly after their birth. The problem is linked with strict family planning and custom that puts greater value on male children in China.

The incident received huge media coverage in the country, sparking outrage among the local Internet community, in particular in China's Twitter-like service Sina Weibo. Many people called for the parents to be severely punished.