Newborn boy rescued from sewer pipe in China

Medical personnel take care of the five-pound baby who was stuck in a toilet pipe for two to three hours at the Pujiang People’s Hospital on Wednesday. Local officials said the boy is healthy. (AFP/Getty Images)

May 28, 2013 10 AM PT

A newborn boy who was rescued from a sewage pipe below a squat toilet by firefighters has been released from a hospital in the care of his maternal grandparents, according to the Associated Press. The mother probably will not face criminal charges, the AP reports, citing local sources. Police reportedly have decided she made an error and wasn’t trying to dispose of her infant. At first, authorities were calling the incident a possible attempted homicide.

The baby who was stuck in a toilet pipe sleeps in an incubator at the Pujiang People’s Hospital on Wednesday. (AFP/Getty Images)

A newborn boy is rescued by firefighters from a sewage pipe below a squat toilet. A tenant heard the baby’s cries in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AFPTV / AFP/Getty Images)

Rescue workers break away bits of a pipe to remove the newborn boy. The child, named Baby No. 59 after the number of his hospital incubator, was reported safe in a nearby hospital. News of the rescue prompted an outpouring from strangers who came to the hospital with diapers, baby clothes, powdered milk and offers to adopt the child. (AFPTV / AFP/Getty Images)

The newborn boy stuck inside a sewer pipe is revealed in the opening. The baby weighed 6.2 pounds and still had his placenta attached to his body, reports said. His heart rate was low and there were grazes on his head and limbs, but he was largely unscathed, according to Zhejiang Online, the province’s official news outlet. (AFPTV / AFP/Getty Images)

A rescue worker reaches into the pipe segment. It was not immediately clear how the baby ended up in the toilet, but police said they were treating the case as an attempted homicide. The Pujiang County police bureau said on its official microblog that the boy’s mother has been located and that an investigation is ongoing. (AFPTV / AFP/Getty Images)