SINGAPORE – A baby’s body was found at the foot of Block 166 Hougang Avenue 1 on Wednesday morning, and an 18-year-old woman is assisting with investigations.

The police said they were alerted to a case of unnatural death at 11.30am on Wednesday.

When The Straits Times arrived at the scene at around 1.20pm, a blue tent was seen on a grass patch next to the block.

A police investigator was briefly seen holding the baby’s body, wrapped in a pink towel, when the tent was moved.

A unit on the second floor was cordoned off by the police, and drops of blood were seen at the nearest lift lobby.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it received a call for assistance at around 11am on Wednesday.

“Upon SCDF’s arrival, a baby was found at the foot of the block and pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic. SCDF conveyed another person to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital,” it added.

A resident who lives on the third floor said it was quiet all morning.

Wanting to be known only as James, 26, a software engineer, he said he woke up at around 10am and realised something was happening only at 1pm.

He said: “I heard nothing, and the police tent was just below my window.”

Mr Norsuefi Nordin, 30, who lives on the second floor, said the police knocked on his door around noon and asked if he had heard a scream. He said “no”.

A middle-aged woman was seen being questioned by the police at the void deck of the block for about an hour from around 1.30pm.

When asked if she lives in the unit that was cordoned off, a young man with her declined comment.

Undertakers were seen taking the body away in a body bag at around 2.40pm.

In an earlier case, Chinese-language news media outlet Lianhe Zaobao reported that a 10-year-old boy found a body of a baby at Pasir Ris Park, under a concrete slab near a barbecue pit, on Dec 24, 2022.

The boy, who was camping with his family, alerted his mother, and she called the police.