A newborn baby girl who was just a few hours old was found alive after being abandoned inside a rubbish bag in Thailand.

Somboon Cheunthip, 62, was visiting the market with her daughter when she noticed a large plastic bag moving on the corner of a road next to a blue plastic bin in Ayutthaya province on October 22.

She initially thought a puppy was trapped inside as she heard a soft cry coming from the moving bag. But as she unwrapped the sack, she was shocked to discover a baby girl sealed inside, with an umbilical cord still attached to its belly.

The mother realised that the baby had only been born recently, as there was also fluid on her frail body.

Somboon said: ‘It was around 4 in the morning when I found the baby girl. She was kept in a two-layered plastic bag which was tightly tied.

‘She could have suffocated. I was only there at that time to go to the market early. It was so lucky we noticed the bad.

‘I carried the baby to the nearest hospital and reported it to the police. I want to know that she’s healthy and being taken care of.’

Paramedics have already cut the child’s umbilical cord. The infant is in a healthy condition and is currently being monitored at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

Police are now looking through surveillance cameras and searching hospital records to track down the child’s parents.

Police Colonel Teethat Sidarak said: ‘We are investigating the hospitals, the neighborhood where the child was abandoned, and identifying the list of pregnant women in the locality.

‘It is possible that a teenage girl with an unwanted pregnancy might have given birth to the child early in the morning, but she had no desire to take care of the newborn so she abandoned her.’