IPOH: A scavenger at the Bercham rubbish dump "ran for his life" when he found the body of a newborn in a black plastic bag.

"The moment I tore open the bag, I saw the body, which was wrapped in a sarong," Ahmad Sufian Zulkfili, 30, said of the 1.45pm incident yesterday. Fellow scavenger Rohimah Abidah Bani Amin, 25, said after calling the police hotline at 1.53pm, she too took a look at the body.

Deputy state police chief Senior Asst Comm (I) Datuk Zakaria Yusof confirmed the case.