Chinese state news reports, said yesterday that the newborn abandoned in a sewage pipe is in stable condition after being rescued by firefighters. Jessica Gray reports.

A true survivor, this baby is recovering slowly inside an incubator in a Chinese hospital after being cut out of an inches thick sewer pipe.

The infant was abandoned in a residential waste duct in Zhejiang province’s Jinhua city.

Unable to remove the 2.3 kilogram baby safely, firefighters brought the child to a hospital, where doctors carefully cut away the pipe. The infant is in a healthy condition, doctors said, aside from scrapes to the head, arms and legs.

Residents yesterday were still in shock over the news.

A young mother of another six-month old baby, said: “I feel heartbroken. As a parent, when my child is ill I get very worried. How can someone have the heart to abandon the baby once she has given birth to it. I feel so sad.”

China witnesses frequent reports of parents abandoning babies, often shortly after birth.

The issue is attributed to young women unaware they are pregnant, unwanted female children and China’s strict family planning rules.