Puglia Italy: Newborn baby boy found dead inside box at church after alarm fails to notify priest

The baby was discovered on Thursday morning (2 January) at the San Giovanni Battista Church in Bari in the Puglia region, Italian news agency Ansa reports. Ansa reported that it's thought the person who left the baby didn't close the door to the room where the cradle was located, meaning the alarm wasn't triggered so the parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, did not know he was there.

Ruccia told Ansa he was in Rome "but my cell phone, which is connected to the cradle, did not ring." "Maybe he could have been saved, but we must forgive," the priest said, per local outlet La Repubblica.

The Italian newspaper and CNN reported the boy was around 1 month old. The newborn was reportedly found by a local funeral home director who was passing the baby box door, which is located on the outside of the church for privacy purposes, according to CNN.

An investigation is underway and Bari police have said it's unclear if the baby was already dead before being taken to the church, Ansa reported. An autopsy will now be carried out on the baby to determine how and when he died, a police spokesperson told CNN.

Baby boxes were introduced in Italy in 2006 to "allow mothers to abandon their newborn babies with no questions asked," according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The cradle was added at the church after a dead baby was discovered on a beach in the nearby town of Monopoli in 2015, Ansa reported.