A newborn baby from a Brazilian Indian tribe managed to survive despite being buried for seven hours by his family, local authorities announced on Thursday after rescuing him.
A nurse alerted police when she saw this newborn baby girl being buried shortly after birth in Singu National Park, home to many indigenous tribes in the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Authorities released a video showing police digging into the sand to save the newborn, whose umbilical cord had not yet been cut.
The baby's great-grandmother, a member of the Kamayura tribe, was arrested, according to prosecutor Paulo Roberto do Prado. "We have launched an investigation to see if this is child murder or if he believed the baby was stillborn," he said.
Although he spent seven hours buried, "the baby is in good health," the prosecutor stressed. The newborn was transported to Cuiaba, the capital of the state of Mato Grosso, and is being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Police have questioned other family members with the help of an anthropologist, a psychologist and representatives of Funai, the state service responsible for indigenous tribes.
According to the prosecutor, they are trying to understand if the case is related to tribal customs.
The family explained to the police that the newborn fell upside down after his mother gave birth to him in a toilet, but the authorities dispute this version.
"As his father refuses to acknowledge it and his mother is only 15 years old, we suspect that they tried to kill the newborn," the local police said in a statement.