Baby Miraculously Rescued Alive From Toilet Pipe After Being Flushed Away

The miracle baby was rescued from the 3 inch wide damp pipe - located directly underneath a toilet, after passers-by heard it crying.

Police are treating the case as attempted murder and are hunting the parents in the strict communist state which bans couples from having more than one child.

China's state broadcaster CCTV said the abandoned infant was found under a residential building in Jinhua in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang.

Firefighters had to remove the pipe, reported to be 10cm in diameter, and take it to a nearby hospital. Doctors had to carefully cut around the tube for nearly an hour before reaching the 5lb (2.3kg) boy.

Chinese media said the child - named Baby No 59 from the number of his incubator - is safe and in a stable condition.

The news triggered hundreds of thousands of comments on China's hugely popular Weibo social media network.

One user said: "I can never accept or forgive the behaviour of dumping the baby with his placenta and umbilical cord attached into the toilet pipe. Can these people be called human beings? The animal to human ratio among the grown-ups is rising inexorably."

There are frequent reports in Chinese media of babies being abandoned - with the problem being attributed to China's strict family planning rules.

Amazing video footage (below) of the rescue was broadcast nationally overnight.

Source: The Sun/Daily Mail