'Monstrous act' as newborn baby abandoned in -20C conditions
A newborn baby abandoned in a cardboard box in -20C weather in Siberia has been saved by a group of heroic teenage boys.
Now the parents of one of them want to adopt the baby as the daughter they never had.
The child was found in deep snow by a remote road in Sosnovka village as Russians marked Orthodox Christmas Day last Friday (local time).
Renat Litvinov, 16, immediately called his parents who rushed to the spot in his car to take the tiny girl to hospital.
Doctors said she was healthy and avoided frostbite despite the intense cold.
The baby was in a cardboard box for storing eggs and had been left to freeze to death, police say.
Authorities are seeking the baby’s parents and announced an investigation into the attempted murder of the child.
“We were just out for a walk in the evening, when we saw a box,” Renat said.
“We walked closer and heard a squeaking sound. We thought there were puppies inside the box.
“But when we turned our phone torches on to see what was inside, there was a tiny baby, a girl.
“She was lying there like a little doll, so tiny.
“We were so stunned we didn’t even know for some seconds what to do, and where to run.
“She had no clothes on her, she was wrapped in a piece of fabric, with a bottle next to her.”
Abandoned newborn about two or three days old
The teens tried to flag down a car, but no-one stopped.
So Renat called his father, saying: “Dad, we found a baby girl in the box.”
“I rushed to them with my wife, and took the baby to the hospital,” Dmitry, 42, said.
“We were all shocked.
“The doctors had a careful look and said she was fine, not even frostbitten.
“My son and his friends must have picked her up just in time.”
Medical staff say the baby – two or three days old – was probably born at home and then abandoned by her mother.
Boy's parents hope to adopt baby girl
"We are parents to three sons, so having a daughter was our long-term dream," Rinat’s mother Anna said.
"We are hoping we’ll be given a chance to adopt her."
The Novosibirsk region children’s ombudswoman, Nadezhda Boltenko, is backing the move.
“We will be supporting the family’s desire to adopt the baby,” Boltenko said.
Investigative committee operative Yekaterina Petrushina said "a criminal case was initiated into the attempted murder of a minor".
Russian parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin added: “This story in Novosibirsk region didn't end in tragedy only thanks to the care of the young men.
“A newborn baby was rescued.
“She was abandoned by those who were supposed to care for her.
“Instead she was left to die in the cold by the side of the road.
“Were these [boys] not to walk on this quiet road, she would have perished from hypothermia.
“There is no excuse for the fiends who abandoned the baby - this is a monstrous act.”
– Australscope
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