Jane Onyanga-Omara

USA TODAY

A woman was charged this week with attempted murder after a newborn baby was found in a drain in Australia.

Cyclists who were riding along a bike track next to the M7 highway in the western Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill heard crying coming from the 8-foot-deep drain Sunday morning, New South Wales Police said.

They lifted the top off and saw the baby boy lying at the bottom.

Saifale Nai, his 30-year-old mother, was arrested following an investigation.

She did not appear in the Blacktown Local Court on Monday to answer the attempted murder charge. She faces a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.

Police believe the baby, thought to be seven days old, was in the drain for up to six days.

He is currently in a children's hospital in a serious but stable condition.

David Otte was cycling with his daughter Hayley when they were flagged down by two men who heard a noise coming from the drain, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It was so intense," Otte told the newspaper. "You couldn't not tell it was a baby. We couldn't see it but we could hear it. It was distressed."

In May 2013, a newborn baby boy in China made worldwide headlines when he was rescued from a sewage pipe beneath a shared bathroom in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. He was later released into the care of his grandparents.

News media reports at the time said authorities concluded the incident was an accident, meaning his unwed mother was unlikely to be criminally charged.

Contributing: Associated Press





