TIRUNELVELI: A newborn baby boy’s body, with the umbilical cord still attached, was found after stray dogs were seen carrying it in the Melanatham area of Melapalayam in Tirunelveli city on Wednesday morning.
Sources said residents noticed a group of stray dogs running along the Talavai Sami Temple Street near a rice mill, carrying a bundle of clothes in their mouths. Suspecting something unusual, few women from the locality followed the dogs, only to notice a baby’s body wrapped inside a cloth.
“Residents found the body of an infant boy, believed to have been born only a few hours earlier, wrapped inside the cloth. The umbilical cord was still attached, indicating that the child was abandoned immediately after birth,” sources added.
Melapalayam police sent the body to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for postmortem. Police have registered a case and launched an investigation to identify the person who abandoned the newborn. Enquiries are being conducted in nearby localities, including private clinics and residences.