The police said they found the newborn at the trash dump on Sunday.

A yet-to-be-identified woman has dumped her one-day-old baby in a heap of refuse along the road in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria's South-east.

The police spokesperson in Anambra State, Tochukwu Ikenga, in a statement, said the police in the state found the newborn baby dumped at a dumpsite on Sunday.

Mr Ikenga, a superintendent of police, said the newborn was put in a sack and dumped among the heap of refuse along Ifite Road in the state capital.

The spokesperson, however, said the police observed that the newborn had died. It is not clear if the baby died after the woman abandoned it at that spot.

Mr Ikenga said a preliminary investigation showed that the woman who dumped the newborn was the baby's mother.

"Meanwhile, the body (of the baby) has been recovered, and the police are currently working with some eyewitness information at the scene for possible arrest of the perpetrator," Mr Ikenga said.

He said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Nnaghe Obono, has ordered an investigation into the incident.

Mr Obono, according to the statement, decried the level of moral decay in Nigeria and described the act as "ungodly, barbaric, and inhuman".

The police chief urged parents and guardians to pay "greater attention" to their children and wards to avoid such acts.

He asked all residents of the state who may have useful information that can aid the investigation to come over to the police headquarters in Anambra.