A newborn baby, with his umbilical cord still partially attached, was discovered by a homeless man in a bin in Lisbon last night.
The young child was found in the late hours of Tuesday evening. It’s not known exactly at what time he was abandoned, but some reports suggest it could have been hours before.
The child was in a “very fragile state” and rushed to the city’s D. Estefânia children’s hospital where he is now said to be “clinically fine and stable”.
Judicial Police and PSP police have launched an investigation to uncover who is behind the abandonment of the baby, in such a way as to put his survival so seriously at risk.
The rubbish bin was located on Lisbon’s Avenida Infante D. Henrique, between the Lux Frágil nightclub and Santa Apolónia railway station.
News sources have interviewed the homeless man who found the child. He explained that the little boy hadn’t just been left in a rubbish bin, but had been dropped into a recycling “eco-point”, designated for plastics and metal.
The child was lying naked on the discarded plastic and metal objects, freezing cold and “purple” in colour.
It was his cries that alerted the man, who was so horrified when he spotted the newborn that he “started screaming” and pulling at the opening of the eco-point to try and get to him.
Staff from the disco then helped to try and warm the boy with blankets as INEM and PSP were called.
The baby’s rescuer told CMTV that he is “traumatised by the fact that anyone could have dropped a human being into a bin, particularly a newly-born one”.
A PSP police officer has told reporters that there are obviously criminal convictions at issue here, though the circumstances have to be clarified through their investigation.
