Baby born after pregnant woman killed by falling tree in Hong Kong

File photo of the skyline of Hong Kong. (AFP/Philippe Lopez)

HONG KONG: Doctors conducted an emergency caesarian to deliver the baby of a pregnant woman who was killed by a falling tree in Hong Kong on Thursday (Aug 14).

The tree struck the woman, knocking her unconscious, at around 2:30pm (0630GMT) in the southern Chinese city's wealthy Mid-Levels neighbourhood, local media reported. The pregnant woman, who was identified by police as a 37-year-old Hong Kong resident surnamed Zhang, was rushed to hospital but certified dead on arrival. Her baby remains in critical condition.

"The mother was certified dead. The baby is still in the intensive care unit and the condition is critical," a Hospital Authority spokesman told AFP.

Hong Kong's summer months often experience wet and windy conditions and the city lies in the path of seasonal typhoons. In the last 24 hours torrential downpours have dumped as much as 40 centimetres of rain on the city of seven million.

Witnesses said people at the scene helped lift the tree off the mother who had sustained injuries to her head.

"The people at the nearby bus station were saying that there seemed to be someone crushed by the tree, so a few of them walked there and lifted the tree to find a pregnant lady there, she was not moving," a witness only identified by his surname Lee told Cable TV News.

"The tree crushed a pregnant female, she was unconscious and after she was sent to a hospital, she was certified to be dead," a police spokeswoman told AFP, without giving further details.

Pictures on Apple Daily website showed a pregnant woman being transported off an ambulance on a stretcher.

Netizens wrote messages of support for the baby. "Hope the baby makes it," local Wong Chui-yi wrote under an online news report.