BEIJING — The mother of a baby boy who was rescued from a sewer pipe beneath a restroom in China shortly after birth is unlikely to face criminal charges because authorities concluded he fell into the toilet accidentally, local officials and media reports said Thursday.
The baby was released from a hospital to his maternal grandparents late Wednesday, while his 22-year-old mother remains under medical care, the state-run Jinhua Evening News reported, in an account confirmed by a local police official who declined to give his name.
The baby’s two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Zhejiang Province’s Pujiang county captivated the world, prompting an outpouring of charity on his behalf.
The mother initially raised the alarm about the baby when he got stuck Saturday in a pipe just below a squat toilet in a public restroom of a residential building, but she had cleaned the room of signs of a birth and did not immediately come forward as the mother, officials have been quoted as saying.
She admitted she was the mother two days later when confronted by police who found baby toys and blood-stained tissues in her apartment, the reports said.
Police later concluded that the incident was an accident and that the woman did not initially come forward because she was frightened, but that she later started telling the truth, the Jinhua Evening News and a Pujiang county propaganda official said. The police initially treated the case as a possible attempted homicide, but now are unlikely to file criminal charges, the newspaper said.
A man tracked down by police who is believed to be the father has requested a paternity test and, if the baby is his, is willing to help support the child, said the Pujiang official.
Officials have not publicly released the names of anyone connected with the case.
The woman told police she got pregnant after a brief affair with the man, hid her pregnancy, and secretly delivered the child Saturday in a restroom. She said the infant accidentally slipped into the squat toilet and — after cleaning up the scene — she raised the alarm.
The baby, who weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces, had a low heart rate and some minor abrasions on his head and limbs, but was mostly uninjured, according to local reports.