14-year-old girl in Russia ‘puts newborn baby in freezer to die'

Teenager was reportedly too scared to tell her parents and delivered the baby alone in her room

File image: Authorities said it was too late to save the baby, who had already been in the freezer for hours (Getty)

A newborn baby has been found dead in a freezer in Russia, after being placed there by a 14-year-old mother who was too afraid to tell her parents about the pregnancy.

Russian state media reported that the incident happened in the village of Verkh-Tula in the Novosibirsk region of Russia, where the teenager lived with her family.

Nobody in the family had been aware of the girl’s pregnancy, Nadezhda Boltenko, the Ombudsman (public lawyer) for child’s rights told TASS.

“The mother [of the schoolgirl] called the doctor because the girl had stomach pains at night. The mother thought it was appendicitis. When the paramedic arrived, the girl told him that she had given birth to a baby and put it in the freezer,” said the lawyer.

He added: “The paramedic went to the police, and the girl was hospitalised.”

Police believe the girl gave birth in secret during the night, before hiding the baby in the freezer because she was too scared to tell her parents, according to local media. 

By the time the authorities arrived at the home it was too late to save the baby, who had been in the freezer for a number of hours.

Anastasia Kuleshova, an official in the regional department of the federal Russian Investigative Committee, told TASS that a probe was underway into the full circumstances of the infant's death.