Newborn baby cut free from aircraft toilet

AN Indian woman gave birth to a baby in the bathroom of an international passenger plane and tried to dispose of it down the toilet, according to media reports in New Delhi.

The infant was found stuck in the toilet after the plane landed in Amritsar, northern India, and was rushed to hospital still attached to the toilet bowl, police and doctors told the Press Trust of India.

HP Singh, a doctor at the Escorts Hospital near the airport, said that a team of surgeons used a saw cutter to clear the newborn’s head from the toilet.

The 22-year-old mother was reported to have left the plane when it landed, and was later arrested in the airport after the cabin crew on the Turkmenistan Airlines flight found her baby.

Doctors said the infant was in a critical condition.

Newspapers reported the mother was an unmarried medical student returning home after completing a degree abroad.

The origin of the flight was unclear, though the Indian Express said it had taken off from the city of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.

Abandoning newborns is an offence punishable by up to seven years in jail, Varinder Kumar, city police commissioner, said.

In largely conservative India, pre-marital sex remains a taboo.

According to witnesses, the woman had boarded the flight from the national capital, Ashgabat. She appeared in distress during the flight and made frequent visits to the aircraft toilet.

In fact, the visits were so frequent that some co-passengers and an airhostess asked Mann if all was well with her. She said she was unwell and needed to relieve herself frequently.

When the plane landed at Amritsar’s Rajasansi International Airport, Mann got off the aircraft and walked off.

A while later the crew members were shocked to hear a baby crying in the toilet.

The woman initially refused to admit she had given birth to the child. But she broke down during questioning by the police.