The infant was pulled out of a drainage pipe in a bathroom on Hongjing Road by Yan Jinxi, a native of Anhui Province who runs a small grocery store next to the toilet.

"At 6 am on Sunday, the toilet's cleaner told me that she heard a baby crying in the women's room," said Yan. "I followed her in, but it was too dark to see where the baby was. I was afraid that the child had already died as it was a very cold morning," said Yan, who has dubbed the infant Yan Liang.

Yan used a cigarette lighter to find the boy, who was stuck in a drainage pipe and had blood on his face and neck.

"The pipe was so narrow that I had to pull him out very slowly and carefully," said Yan, noting that the boy still suffered a scratch on his face. "When he was out, I found his umbilical cord hadn't been cut off. It's so cruel of the parents to abandon a baby who is less than one hour old," said Yan, a father of three children.

The boy was rushed to the hospital.

When he arrived, he was blue due to exposure, according to doctors.

"We examined and treated him and his temperature rose to normal within three hours," said Dr. Zhou Wenhao, adding the boy weights 2.9 kilograms and is healthy except for a slight case of pneumonia.

Doctors say the boy can leave the hospital within a week, although there is still no word on who his parents are. If they aren't found soon, he will be sent to the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute.

The institute must try to find his parents, but if it fails, it will arrange for a suitable family to adopt the young boy, according to its routine practice.

Yan said he is concerned about the boy's future. "I can't understand how a person can throw away his own child in a lavatory. It is inhuman."

"The boy now can breathe and drink milk by himself. He is so cute that some of our staff wants to adopt him," said Luo Weifeng, a hospital spokeswoman.

Luo said the hospital normally receives seven to eight abandoned children a year, mostly from other provinces and suffering from diseases or handicaps.

Parents found guilty of abandoning a child can get up to three years in jail.

(eastday.com February 26, 2003)