PHOTOS: Passer-by rescues newborn baby flushed down the toilet by his mother after hearing his cries from a sewer

The cover of a sewer in China’s Shaanxi Province was opened to rescue a newborn baby after a passer-by heard his cries from a sewer. The baby was found lying on his back in a small pool of water in the sewer.

Suide County fire department squad leader Li Zhi said: "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.
"But we didn't want to smash the pipe because we thought that might also 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 baby was taken to hospital where after being cleaned and fed he was announced to be perfectly healthy.
Dr Li Zhiping, who had been attending to him 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."
The child, nicknamed Xiaoxiao by his rescuers, is being taken care of by members of the fire department who have volunteered to be his temporary parents pending investigations.
Police have appealed for help in tracking down the mother who may need medical help but have also warned that she will face legal charges if found.