Hong Kong - A Filipino maid in Hong Kong was being held for suspected infanticide Tuesday after being accused of throwing her newborn boy to his death from a high-rise apartment block.

The body of the infant with his umbilical cord still attached was found suspended Sunday evening on a clothes drying rack by a horrified resident from an apartment on a lower floor.

Police did door-to-door checks and arrested the Filipino maid after finding blood splashed on the wall of the apartment where she worked in the city's Ma On Shan district.

The maid was believed to have kept her pregnancy secret from her Chinese employer and was accused of throwing the baby from a window of the flat within minutes of his birth.

A police spokesman said the woman was being held Tuesday on suspicion of infanticide. Charges had yet to be brought against her, the spokesman said.

Hong Kong is home to more than 250,000 Filipino, Indonesian and Thai domestic helpers who live with families and earn a government-set minimum wage of around 460 US dollars a month. (dpa)