A Beijing policeman rescued a newborn baby that was stuck facedown in a public toilet, reaching his arm down into the pipe to gently pull the infant out, the police reported on Tuesday.

The baby girl was in stable condition at a hospital, and authorities were trying to identify her parents and find out how she ended up in the toilet.

Beijing Television aired a video taken by police of the rescue on Sunday by Officer Qian Feng, following reports of cries in a public restroom in an alley.

"I am probably the first one to hold this child," Qian told the TV station in a later interview.

Unmarried mothers in China sometimes abandon newborns because of the social stigma associated with out-of-wedlock births. Some children born with defects have also been discarded.

In 2013, rescuers in Zhejiang province gingerly cut open a sewer pipe to save a baby boy, who his mother said had accidentally slipped into the toilet where she delivered. Local media reports said the woman had become pregnant after a one-night stand but hid the pregnancy from her parents.

During Sunday's rescue, the child's feet were seen in the toilet pipe, and police officers called for help from firefighters, but before they could arrive, Qian knelt down to pull the baby out, the TV station reported.

Quoting neighbors, police and medical staff, the TV report said a woman may have given birth to the 2-kilogram baby directly into the toilet and then left without the child, whose umbilical cord was pulled off, instead of cut.

The Beijing police confirmed the report but gave few details online. The infant did not appear to have any physical defects, the police reported.

Medical personnel told the television station that the baby had infections but otherwise was doing fine.

(China Daily 08/05/2015 page3)