A couple were left shocked after discovering an abandoned newborn baby dumped on the side of a trail with her umbilical cord still attached.
Daniela Fedele and her husband made the heartbreaking find during a walk in Katy in the US state of Texas.
The couple were walking along Casa Martin Drive in the city some 30 miles west of Houston on Saturday when they stumbled upon a towel on the ground.
Their three-year-old daughter was just about to rider her bike toward the pile of fabric before Fedele realised something was moving underneath it, Dailymail.com reports.
She told local news outlet KHOU: ‘I noticed two little feet moving and then my husband was right behind me with the dogs and I yelled to my husband and I’m like, “Oh my God, a baby, a baby“‘.
The mum sprang to action, telling her husband to call 911 to alert the emergency services.
CCTV footage shows the moment the little girl was abandoned on the ground, showing a man look around him before leaving the infant behind as he takes off.
It is unclear how long the newborn was on the road before Fedele came across it.
Harris County Sheriff’s deputies said they received a call at about 9pm and they rushed to the scene.
They praised the couple for rescuing the baby, with Sgt. Juan Garcia from the Child Abuse Unit saying they were a ‘blessing.’
He said the ‘baby was a newborn… still had, you know, fresh placenta on the baby, so it was freshly born this morning.’
After realising what was inside the bundle, Fedele and her husband tried to keep the baby out of the sun.
She said: ‘Once my husband went ahead and picked up the baby, he found the nearest, like tree, right there at the house down the street. He found a little shade.’
Temperatures in the area have been hovering on both side of 30°C during a heatwave in the state.
They told the sheriff’s deputies they saw a man running away after handing over the baby girl to the officers.
She taken to a local hospital, where she was reportedly in good condition, according to Dailymail citing KHOU.
But Fedele said she is haunted by the find as she wondered how anyone could abandon a helpless baby.
‘I was shocked, I was mad, I was upset.
‘You can drop it off at a fire station, a police station, a hospital, I don’t know… but don’t leave the baby,’ she added.
The force said cases of abandonment are rare.
Now the police have launched an investigation and they are looking for the male captured on CCTV.
He is described as a young Hispanic or white male, with a slim build and a fair complexion. He was wearing a black shirt and possibly grey pants.
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