Infant fights for life in Hong Kong after mother found dead following pre-dawn birth in subdivided flat

A premature baby girl was fighting for life in hospital after her mother gave birth in a subdivided flat in Tai Po and died before dawn yesterday.

Crime-squad officers are investigating whether foul play was involved in the death of the woman, who had worked as a beer promoter, while an autopsy will be carried out.

Wong Man-ying, 35, was six to seven months into her pregnancy when she gave birth, according to police.

The infant is the woman's second daughter and was in a critical condition in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po last night. The baby's one-year-old sister is being taken care of by their grandmother.

The girls' father is believed to be Wong's married lover, a 35-year-old delivery worker who has children in his own family.

He was located by police at about 11am yesterday after he allegedly left Wong's flat in Kwong Fuk Road in a hurry shortly after midnight before she was found unconscious in bed beside her newborn baby. "We are investigating when he came to visit her and what he was doing inside the flat before he left," one police source said.