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Sydney woman charged with abandoning baby in drain

Cyclists found a newborn baby inside a drain alongside a Sydney highway on Sunday.

By Kate Stanton

SYDNEY, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Australian police charged a 30-year-old woman with attempted murder on Monday, after her newborn baby was found abandoned down a stormwater drain in Sydney.

Cyclists heard the baby, thought to be about seven days old, crying from a drain alongside Sydney's M7 motorway on Sunday morning.

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"I've got two kids of my own so I know what a baby screaming sounds like," one of the cyclists, David Otte, told The Sydney Morning Herald. "It was so intense; you couldn't not tell it was a baby. We couldn't see it but we could hear it. It was distressed."

The baby boy, who was covered in what appeared to be a hospital blanket, was taken to a nearby hospital in serious but stable condition.

Police said they believed the baby had been down the train for six days.

Inspector David Lagats told reporters that the child would probably not have survived the hot weather in Sydney on Sunday, which saw the mercury hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It was already undernourished and dehydration would have taken effect," Inspector Lagats said.

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Authorities said in a release that they discovered the boy's mother by checking hospital records and door-knocking.

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