A newborn baby boy is alive after spending 40 hours in a sewer in an apartment building in Alicante, Spain. Firefighters rescued the baby from under a manhole cover. The child was wrapped in a plastic bag with a hole in it so he could breathe. A man from the apartment building called the police after he heard a sound coming from the sewer. He told reporters his story of what happened, saying: "I thought it was a cat that was trapped and that the baby's crying was its meowing. The noise went on for ages so I called the police. One of the firefighters saw one of his tiny feet and realised it wasn't a cat but a child." The baby boy, who weighs 2.1kg, is now safe in hospital. He has a broken arm and a few other injuries.

Spanish police arrested the 26-year-old mother of the baby soon after he was found. She is being charged with attempted murder for trying to kill her son. Police have not yet named the woman. Police officers said she went to a local hospital after she gave birth and told nurses she had suffered a miscarriage. She then told the police that she pushed her baby down a drain because she was too poor to pay for an abortion. Police are now trying to find out if she acted alone or if someone helped her. Last month, emergency workers in eastern China had to rescue a newborn baby after it became stuck in a sewer pipe. Its mother tried to give birth in secret and said the baby slipped down the toilet.