Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the moment a toddler is put inside a plastic travel bag and abandoned outside a restaurant by his father in freezing-cold weather before he wriggles out five hours later and cries for help.
Footage from the city of Laixi in China’s eastern province of Shandong shows the plastic sack being found by a restaurant employee an hour later, but he picks it up and moves it in front of a neighbouring hotel, apparently without checking its contents.
Video of the incident on 16th November shows the boy wriggling inside the travel bag left on a pavement on Weihai East Road as he tries to get out.
He eventually manages to undo the zip and climbs out a reported five hours later to find himself surrounded by darkness in below-freezing temperatures and his dad, 53-year-old Mr Qu, nowhere to be seen.
His cries are heard by employees inside a nearby shop who are shocked to find the tot inside the sack.
Local policeman Shan Zengkai, who arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later, said the boy was left with clothes and a note inside the travel bag.
The unsigned note identified boy’s date of birth as being November 2016, and the writer said they could no longer afford to raise the child.
The boy was taken to a local hospital for tests and later transferred to Qingdao Children’s Welfare Institute, where he remains.
The authorities said Mr Qu was found and arrested on 20th November.
The parent told investigators that he had the boy out of wedlock, and that the child’s mother recently abandoned them after he fell ill and could no longer afford to care for the family.
Mr Qu remains in custody as investigations into the alleged child abandonment continue.
The authorities did not say whether they had questioned the restaurant staff member.
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