In China, strange "barking noises" that seemed to be coming from the ground led locals to a shallow grave where a newborn baby had been buried alive. Villagers 'were stunned' after discovering an abandoned child in a cardboard box, while they were gathering mushrooms in the mountains.

Residents of Nanbaita Village Jiao Xinglu and Zhou Shangdong say they were picking mushrooms outside of the city of Laiwu, in East China’s Shandong Province, when they found the buried newborn on August 21. News of the discovery was only publicized last week after the baby’s grandfather confessed that the infant had been buried after he had “stopped breathing” and was presumed “dead.”

“Zhou Shangdong and I found him while picking mushrooms in the mountains. We heard a noise like a dog barking,” Jiao said. After their friends and family arrived at the scene, the group suspected there was a baby buried beneath the ground. They began digging into the soil, but the baby’s cries grew fainter and eventually stopped.

The group, who managed to film the scene on video, captured the moment when Jiao, who dug into the grave with his bare hands, found the cardboard box that contained the boy, who was covered in a blanket. According to the police, he was transported to the Second Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital for emergency care after being examined by a local doctor, Zhou Shanghong.

The infant, who weighed just 3.4lbs, was suffering from anemia and jaundice. Despite his initial struggles, he has no congenital conditions and has since made a full recovery. The boy is now two months old and weighs 8.8lbs. Yesterday, when local police were still trying to find his family, an elderly man who identified himself as the child’s grandfather, turned up at Tai’an’s Yangliu Police Station.

He said he and his family had buried the boy, a twin, after he had "died" a day after he was born. He said he was stunned when he saw that the child had “come back to life” on the local news and decided to contact the police. “After he was born in hospital, he relied on a respiratory machine to breathe,” Liu said. “He had a serious lung infection and couldn’t breathe on his own. He died on the second day. He couldn’t drink or eat. After he died, we buried him.”

“I didn’t know he was alive. I was very surprised, shocked, too,” he added. “I can’t stop thinking about him. I’m happy and sad at the same time.”

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Local authorities are still attempting to verify Liu’s claims. In the meantime, Zhou Shanghong, the doctor and mother-of-two who examined the baby after he was found, said she would apply to adopt the boy if the police were unable to locate the family.