Mother throws her one-day-old baby into the bush from a bridge because ‘she can’t afford to raise him’
- The woman deserted her son while walking to her mother’s home in China
- She claimed she had tossed him off the bridge due to her financial situation
- The boy had lain in the shrubs for 17 hours before being found by a villager
- He is in stable condition after treatment, and his mother has been detained
A mother has been detained in north-eastern China after allegedly abandoning her newborn baby in the bush.
The woman is said to have thrown the boy from a bridge into the shrubs while walking to her mother’s home.
She decided to desert her son because she couldn’t afford to raise him, local media reported. The child has been saved.
A mother in north-eastern China’s Dehui city tossed her newborn son into the shrubs (left) from a bridge. The boy (right) has been rescued after being spotted by a villager the next day
The baby was discovered at around 1:30pm on Monday by a resident of the Hong Family Village outside the prefecture-level city of Dehui in Jilin Province, the police said in a statement.
He was found lying in the bush on the northern side of the Wukai River Bridge.
Ms Qu, who came across the boy, said she saw ants and flies surrounded the child, who had ‘many insect bites’ on his face.
‘The child’s neck was full of ants,’ the Good Samaritan told Pear Video.
Police were immediately alerted to the site.
A police officer said the boy was weak when he and his colleagues arrived at the scene (right). The child is in stable condition after being treated at the Changchun Children’s Hospital (left)
Upon investigation, officers discovered that the baby was born at around 8pm on Saturday to a woman, Ms Guo, in her flat.
Ms Guo passed the Wukai River Bridge on her way to her mother’s home on Sunday night. There, she decided to toss her son off the bridge into the wildness.
Police officer Pan Xin said the boy was weak when he and his colleagues arrived at the scene.
Officer Pan told Jilin TV Station: ‘Although he was breathing, he was barely conscious and his body had started to stiffen.’
Ms Guo told police that she had chosen to dump him because she felt she wouldn’t be able to bring him up due to her financial situation.
Workers at the Children’s Welfare Institute of Changchun, the city that administers Dehui, took the baby the Changchun Children’s Hospital.
He is in stable condition following treatment and being looked after by the welfare institute.
Ms Guo is under police custody. Further investigation is underway.