BEIJING • A newborn girl was abandoned in a Beijing public toilet and fell head-first down the pipe, reports said, after her mother apparently gave birth in the facility.

Members of the public were alerted by the baby's cries, the Beijing Times reported yesterday, and a police officer reached down the pipe to extract the girl.

She was taken to a hospital in the capital and did not appear to have any physical disabilities, according to the report.

Blood around the lavatory bowl, and the fact that her parents did not report her trapped in the pipe, indicated she had been born in the toilet and abandoned there, it said, adding that the police were trying to identify her parents.

Chinese babies born out of wedlock are sometimes abandoned because of social and financial pressures. The country's one-child policy can also mean heavy fines for couples who have more than one baby.

Incidents involving suffering infants have scandalised the Chinese public in recent years.

A baby girl was abandoned in a public male toilet in north-west China's Shaanxi province in December last year. She was later saved by firefighters and the video of it went viral on Sina Weibo.

In May 2013, a newborn baby in the eastern province of Zhejiang survived after being dropped down a public toilet conduit by the mother. On that occasion, the boy became stuck and rescuers had to saw away a section of the pipe with him inside.

The case triggered widespread fury, but was later declared an accident.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE