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Newborns

Newborn boy abandoned in car workshop

Mechanics at a garage in eastern China had a shock when they found a baby behind a car in a workshop. They had an even bigger shock when security camera footage appeared to show the child being born.

The workers in Hangzhou, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, found the baby behind an Audi as they began their morning shift. “There was blood [on the floor]. Even the cord wasn’t cut off. I’ve never seen a baby that tiny before,” Xiao Song, one employee, told a local radio station.

After the baby was taken to hospital, the mechanics looked at camera footage, which showed a pregnant young woman entering the workshop at about 8am. She squatted down behind the car and after less than two minutes stood up, fastened her belt and left, leaving the baby and a bag.

The woman, aged about 20, returned and was reunited with her son in hospital. Local media reports said that police were not pressing charges. The radio station said that the woman had entered the workshop “in the heat of the moment” and afterwards didn’t know what to do.

If she was unmarried, the stigma of being a single mother may explain the incident. Authorities make it nearly impossible for single mothers to get the paperwork citizens need.