Prompt response by emergency personnel and the police in Mpumalanga resulted in the rescue of a new-born baby dumped in a pit latrine and the arrest of a teenage mother at the weekend.

The incident occurred at Thusanang Section in Witbank, Mpumalanga, on Friday morning, police said.

Captain Leonard Hlathi said residents in the informal settlement heard a baby crying inside the pit latrine on Friday morning and alerted the police. Members of the emergency services went to the scene and had to demolish the toilet and “dig around the pit latrine to reach the baby girl”.

He said the baby, who was covered in human waste, was still alive when the emergency personnel reached her. She was rushed to hospital.

Investigations led to the arrest of a 19-year-old girl in connection with the matter.

Hlathi said the girl denied dumping the baby and claimed that she went to the toilet in the early hours of Friday morning to relieve herself when the baby allegedly came out and fell into the latrine.

“She could not say why she did not report the matter to the police or at least seek help by informing other people,” he said.

The girl said she was planning to inform the baby’s father about the incident before she was arrested, Hlathi said.

She is due to appear in the Witbank magistrate’s court on an attempted murder charge today, added Hlathi.