AGENCIES: A newborn baby girl has been discovered buried alive in northern India, a local police chief has revealed.

Abhinandan Singh told reporters the baby was found by a villager who was burying his own daughter, who had died minutes after birth.

The baby girl, who had been placed inside an earthen pot about 3ft (90cm) below the ground, was rushed to hospital, where she is recovering.

Police have now launched an investigation into the incident.

“We are trying to find the parents of the baby and we suspect that this must have happened with their consent,” Singh told reporters in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

According to the police chief, the villager found the girl by accident as he dug a grave in a burial ground for his own daughter.