BALIK PULAU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A security guard was collecting sea shells along the Tanjung Assam beach in Penang on Sunday (Feb 12) when he was alerted to a gruesome find.

Mr Mohd Zuhairi Shamri rushed over and what greeted him was beyond words.

The 24-year-old almost broke down upon seeing the remains of a baby boy with his umbilical cord still intact. The infant was dumped inside a toilet of the beach in the village of Gertak Sanggul.

"How can someone be so cruel? At least have the decency to wrap him up in a cloth," he said.

Mr Zuhairi then called the police.

Earlier, two men found the dead baby under a water pipe in one of the toilets at about 9am.

Food stall owner Shara Effa Che Omar was equally upset when told of the discovery.

"A precious life is lost. The parents should have given him up for adoption," added the 35-year-old.

"I don't mind raising him as my own since my daughter has grown up."

The latest incident was the third baby dumping case in Penang over the past two months.

Last Tuesday, an 81-year-old man rummaging through a garbage bin in Bandar Perda stumbled upon the remains of a baby boy.

And, last month, a six-month-old foetus was found inside a dumpster in Chai Leng Park.

Balik Pulau OCPD Superintendent Anuar Omar said a police team went to the toilet at the beach to carry out an investigation after receiving a distress call at about 9.25am.

"The remains have been sent to the Balik Pulau Hospital for a post-mortem," he said.

"We are tracking the baby's mother and whoever else is responsible for dumping the infant."

Penang Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Chong Eng said parents who could not look after their newborns should place them in a baby hatch at KPJ Penang Specialist Hospital in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam.

"They can also seek help from non-governmental organisations or the state Welfare Department," she said.