NICOSIA (AFP) - A two-day-old Chinese baby girl is doing fine after she was discovered wrapped in a blanket and abandoned in a school bag, welfare officials said yesterday.

A man on his way to work alerted police after he saw a school bag in the street outside a block of flats in the center of Nicosia, and noticed that it was moving. Officials said the three-kilo baby was not born at a clinic or hospital, as the umbilical cord had been “rudimentarily severed.” According to welfare director Evanthia Papasavva, the baby was doing fine in the hospital.

A police search located the mother, a 25-year-old Chinese student, but it is believed that she could not have abandoned the baby herself since she appeared ill.

There are few unwanted babies in Cyprus, with couples wanting to adopt far exceeding the number of children available. Cypriots seldom have children outside marriage.