A woman who apparently got pregnant after an illegitimate relationship dumped her baby near a public waste bin alive only to be half eaten by hungry rats, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Sabq Arabic language daily said it had obtained a film of the infant screaming and writhing in pain after its body became a feast for rats but that it could not publish it because it is “too hideous, savage and horrific” to be seen.

The paper did not make clear how the film was shot but said the infant has been dumped near the waste bin in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah by the mother just after she gave birth as the baby’s placenta was still hanging to the body.

“The film has moved the feelings of every one who has seen it…the infant was placed in a carton box near a waste bin as rats gathered around the body and were seen biting into the tender flesh,” it said.

It quoted a Saudi human rights activist as saying she was deeply “upset and horrified” by the film, describing the mother as a monster.

“This mother is a monster who is void of any human feelings…she committed her first sin, which is adultery, then perpetrated a heinous murder…she could have left the infant near a mosque or a hospital instead of dumping it in the garbage,” said Suhaila Zain Al Abidin, member of the National Human Rights Commission.

“I can not express my real feelings towards this tragedy but I only complain this woman to our Lord…may God the Almighty punish her for what she has done to her own baby,” she added before bursting into crying, according to Sabq, which did not make clear what happened to the infant.