Newborn rescued from ditch after several hours

Locals in Huong Son District's Tan Thuy Village heard the cries of a baby coming from the wayside of a road, where they then found a mud-covered infant lying in a ditch with her skin turning purple in the rain.

The girl was then sheltered at a nearby house. Her umbilical cord had yet to be removed and she was suffering from injuries on her cheeks and near her eyes.

She was then taken to the Son Tay Commune medical station, where her umbilical cord was cut and her wounds were cleaned.

Health workers said the girl weighed around 2.4 kg and was most likely born that morning. She had been in the ditch for about four hours before she was rescued, they said.

"There was no water in the ditch, but because she had been abandoned there in the cold rain for so long, her body was so covered with mud that nurses had to bathe her three times before she was clean," said a representative from the medical station.

The representative said the girl was fortunate to have been found when she was because if she had been left there any later, her life could have been in danger.

By Wednesday afternoon, regular color had returned to her skin, but she still required monitoring for the next several days.

Tran Minh Quang, Party Secretary of Son Tay Commune, said authorities were looking for the girl's family. He added that if none were found, she would be put up for adoption.