A stray dog mauled a newborn inside a toilet of a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district on Saturday. The incident came to light when a security guard noticed the stray dog had the stillborn baby in its jaws and shooed the animal away before informing the hospital administration, officials said.

Authorities of the civil hospital in Indore’s Mhow and the police launched an investigation into the events that led to the incident and who left the newborn in the toilet.

Hospital staff said around 2 am, a girl reached the civil hospital and prematurely delivered her baby inside the toilet. Following that, she fled the spot, leaving the stillborn behind.

“As per CCTV footage, the incident happened between 1:30 and 2 am. A young girl was seen going into the toilet during this period. When we checked with staff, we found the 17-year-old had come here complaining of colic and had been admitted at 9 pm on Friday. We suspect the girl gave birth to a child in the toilet,” news agency PTI quoted Mhow civil hospital in charge Dr HR Verma as saying.

As soon as the information about the case was received in the morning, police reached the spot and started investigating the whole matter.

“A guard said the body of a newborn girl was lying in the bathroom of the hospital which was being scratched by dogs and the upper torso of the girl was missing. The police were informed immediately about the case,” Dr Verma said.

He also told the reporters that the young girl disappeared with an unidentified man.

At present, the identity of the girl who left the baby in the hospital toilet was also being ascertained.

“We conducted a post-mortem on Saturday morning and its report is awaited. A preliminary report said the delivery was premature. The body has been placed in the mortuary. Police have begun a probe into this incident and we will provide all CCTV footage to help them,” Dr Verma added.

(with inputs from Dharmendra Kumar Sharma)