(Jill Reilly) desperate emergency rescue was launched after a pregnant woman gave birth squatting above a public toilet, but in a horrifying twist, lost the baby when it was accidentally flushed away.
Rescue workers had to rip out the toilet and crack waste pipes to find the tiny newborn baby.
According to witnesses, the woman went into the toilet in Zhaoyang District, Beijing and asked her husband to wait outside.
But when she gave birth to a baby, hovering over the toilet, the baby dropped into the toilet and was accidentally flushed down by waste water.
The desperate mother alerted her husband, who called for emergency services and a team of firefighters arrived and dug out the urinal.
At first the firefighters could not locate the baby, but as they tore up more of the tiled flooring, they located the tiny newborn fifteen minutes later.
The mother and baby were rushed to the No.1 Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University for treatment.
The baby is currently in a critical condition.
It is not the first time a baby has been accidentally flushed away in China – in 2006, a 19 year-old in Jiang S had a similar experience and her baby was accidentally flushed into the waste pipe, although it was found several hours later and made a full recovery.