An employee of a maternal and child health care hospital was fired yesterday for throwing the bodies of about 10 newborns onto a bridge in Dezhou, in east China's Shandong Province.

The bodies were found by a sanitation worker Tuesday morning.

The bodies of about 10 babies were found on the sidewalk of the Chahe Bridge on Sanba Road by a sanitation worker in Dezhou, Shandong.

Dezhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital published an announcement yesterday morning, saying that the employee from its obstetrics and gynecology department, identified as Zhang Hejin, disobeyed the hospital regulation and dealt with the bodies improperly. An official of the department was also suspended for the incident.

Xu Guanying, the vice director of the hospital, said most of the bodies were deformed fetuses born through induced labor.

Local media reported that the bodies were first found on the sidewalk of the Chahe Bridge on Sanba Road by a sanitation worker around 7am on Tuesday.

"Originally I saw one on the road and I thought it was improper to leave it on the sidewalk so I decided to move it to a roadside ditch," said the worker surnamed Sun.

But she was astonished to find more infant bodies on the path to the ditch. Some were held in a plastic bag with a label reading: "Medical waste. Contagious."

Police soon came, gathered the bodies and gave them a temporary burial nearby. A witness said about 10 bodies were found.

An investigation showed that it was Zhang, the employee of Dezhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, who threw the bodies away, which was against the hospital regulation.

Usually the hospital will ask the family of the baby to take the body away, but some families refuse to take it as they think it will bring bad luck. Xu, a hospital official, refused to reveal more details about Zhang and the incident.

A doctor from the obstetrics and gynecology department of another local hospital said that in the 1980s many families would pay nurses to bury their dead babies in the suburbs. However, infant mortality rate is very low nowadays and people choose cremation to dispose of the bodies.

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