Patna: A seven-month-old baby girl died after she was thrown from the roof of a house in India’s Bihar state, in what is believed to be yet another case of gender discrimination.

Authorities have launched a manhunt for an unknown suspect.

The incident took place near a government hospital in Hajipur, the headquarters of Vaishali district, close to the state capital Patna.

Witnesses said they were in the hospital when they heard a thumping sound from near the labour ward.

When they rushed there, they saw a baby lying in a pool of blood and stray dogs feeding on it.

“By the time we rushed for help, she was no more,” a witness told the local media.

Hospital authorities said they were investigating the case.

“We are investigating all the delivery cases reported in the past seven months. We will call the mothers and asked about the whereabouts of their babies. Those without babies will be identified and punished,” hospital’s deputy superintendent Dr U.P. Verma told journalists media on Tuesday.

In January this year, a woman killed her six-day-old baby girl and dumped her into the septic tank of a toilet as she didn’t want to bring up a second daughter.

The incident took place in Samastipur district.

Ironically, the baby was killed on a day when the entire family was busy celebrating “Chhati”, a ritual conducted on 6th say after birth of every child.

Apparently, the baby was strangulated to death, police said.

Earlier in February last year, a man from Bhagalpur district had killed his 16-month-old daughter by allegedly injecting poison into her body.

The victim’s mother had gone out to work when her husband injected poison into her breast-feeding daughter, leading to her death.

Discrimination on the basis of sex is quite common in Bihar and there have been several incidents of girl children as well as their mothers treated with disdain despite continuing awareness drive by the government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has launched much-publicised “Selfies with Daughters” campaign aimed at promoting girl children.

Gender discrimination is prevalent in Bihar and, according to a report, the sex ratio in at least nine districts out of state’s total 38 is less than 900 girl — against state’s average of 916 per 1,000 male population.

The districts typically reporting the worst cases are Patna, capital of Bihar, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, vaishali, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Munger.