Cleaner Jumiati Amat was doing her regular clean-up yesterday at a women's toilet at Tampines MRT station when she discovered, wrapped in a plastic bag in a bin, the tiny body of a newborn baby.
The 75-year-old found the baby boy in a rubbish bin inside a toilet cubicle at around 1.30pm.
"I saw the baby in the red plastic bag. I took it out and put it on the table," she told The Straits Times.
Madam Jumiati, who has been a cleaner for the past eight years, had first cleared the bin at around 7am yesterday. She was on her second clean-up in the afternoon when she found the body.
Peering inside the open plastic bag, she found the baby lying face up with his eyes and mouth closed.
She immediately alerted two SMRT staff, who called the police.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said it was alerted to the incident at about 1.40pm. An ambulance arrived within seven minutes.
The baby was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.
The area around the toilet was cordoned off for at least two hours for investigations.
Police officers were seen carrying a body bag out of the toilet at about 4pm.
This is the first known case of an abandoned baby here this year. Between 2006 and last year, there were 21 babies dumped in Singapore, the Ministry of Social and Family Development told The Straits Times earlier this year.
There were no cases last year, and just two such cases each year in 2013 and 2014.
Most recently, an 18-year-old was sentenced to two years' probation on Feb 4 for leaving his newborn son in an SG50 bag outside his parents' flat last year.
Investigations in to the latest case are ongoing.
Jalelah Abu Baker
Ng Huiwen
