An Australian mother has been charged with attempted murder after her newborn baby was found crying at the bottom of a roadside drain in Sydney, where police believe he survived for five days.
Passing cyclists heard the baby cries coming from the 2.5 metre deep drain on a bike path along a western Sydney highway early yesterday morning.
After several people lifted a heavy concrete slab, the baby boy, wrapped in a striped hospital blanket with his umbilical cord cut and clamped, was found at the bottom.
A 30-year-old woman was charged with attempted murder after police spent several hours searching hospital records and knocking on doors.
She was remanded in custody because she was reportedly viewed as a flight risk, as her parents and siblings live in Samoa.
Police revealed the boy had been in the dirty drain since last Tuesday and that he was likely pushed through a small gap, before plunging to the bottom.
"A woman has been charged with attempted murder after a newborn baby was found in a drain in Sydney's west on Sunday," police said in a statement.
"Police will allege the baby, believed to have been born on Monday, was placed into the drain on Tuesday, November 18."
Court documents claim the woman admitted to police she dumped her baby in the drain, knowing it could kill him, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The woman was verbally abused by members of the public on her way into court.
The baby remains in a stable condition in hospital.
He has been placed in the care of the New South Wales Family and Community Services. It will be up to the agency to assess what now happens to him.
