It began with a soft crying sound and ended with two cleaners saving the life of an abandoned newborn boy.

As Mr Patwari Shamim and Mr Mostafa Kamal drove a buggy to collect rubbish bins from about 17 refuse chute chambers around Block 534 in Bedok North Street 3 on Tuesday morning, they heard crying coming from one of the bins.

Mr Patwari, 24, thought he had misheard and asked his colleague. Mr Mostafa, 37, had also heard it and said it was probably a discarded toy doll with its batteries still intact.

In a decision that dramatically changed the baby's fate, Mr Patwari, who was driving, stopped the buggy for Mr Mostafa to check the bin.

In a mix of English and Bengali, the two Bangladeshi cleaners related how Mr Mostafa opened the bin and removed a sheet of newspaper to find a Sheng Siong supermarket plastic bag that looked wet and bloody. He stepped back in shock: something in the bag had moved.

Mr Patwari said he could make out tiny limbs thrashing inside the bag. He said: "We have found dolls before that made crying sounds. But the crying coming from inside the bag was now very loud and it made me scared."

He called their supervisor at Aljunied-Hougang Town Council. When he arrived, they opened the bag.

Mr Patwari saw a naked male infant lying in a small pool of water with blood on his body. Part of the baby's umbilical cord was still attached, he said. The supervisor called the police immediately and Mr Patwari went back to the bin centre to get a piece of cloth to clean and wrap the baby.

Cleaners recall shocking discovery

The police said on Tuesday that they were still trying to trace the baby's parents.

When paramedics checked the baby, he was in stable condition and had no visible injuries. He was later taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

Mr Patwari said that in the four years he has worked in Singapore, this is the first time something like this has happened.

He and his colleague clear rubbish from the refuse chute chambers of 28 Housing Board blocks in the estate once a day, taking six bins on the buggy to the centralised bin centre on each trip.

The doors to the refuse chute chambers are not locked.

Mr Patwari, the second youngest of five siblings, said he is still reeling from shock over the incident and was worried about the infant after the boy was taken to hospital. He said: "A policeman came here (on Wednesday) and I asked him how the baby was doing. I am happy to hear that he is healthy."

Mr Patwari, who is single, said he had a hard time trying to sleep on Tuesday. "I kept thinking what would have happened if I had not seen the baby. I could have just dumped him into the bin centre to be crushed.

"I am so happy the baby is alive. I helped to save a life. I like my job even more now."

He added that he would also like to meet the baby when he is older, if possible.

Mr Mostafa, who has been working here for about two years, said it was a miracle the baby survived. His 17-year-old son is a cleaner at a nearby block and a younger son, 11, is studying in Bangladesh.

He said: "It is amazing (the baby survived) because people are always throwing things, like bottles, down. As a father, this is one of the best things I have done in my life, saving somebody."

• Additional reporting by Pradip Kumar Sikdar