JUMBLE BOOK
Real-life Mowgli girl, 5, who can’t speak found living in mountain of cockroach infested rubbish
The half-starved girl had made a den amid the piles of stinking waste
A REAL-life Mowgli girl, five, with "no language or social skills", has been discovered living in a festering mountain of cockroach-infested rubbish.
Russian cops wearing chemical protection suits rescued the dehydrated and ill half-naked child.
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The girl was widely described by Russian media as “Mowgli”, but it was unclear whether dogs or cats were found with her.
A necklace had been left on her for so long that it had become lodged in her skin, and reports said she “could not speak, [could] only make sounds, and was not socialised”.
She was offered water and “drank two litres”.
The neglected half-naked child called Lyubov - or Love - was found dehydrated and sickly after her mother, Irina Garashchenko, 47, was reported “absent for days” from her noxious Moscow flat.
Shocked cops discovered the half-starved girl had made a den up to her neck amid piles of stinking rubbish infested with cockroaches.
The state of the flat was so bad that police had to don chemical protection suits for their health and safety.
"No food"
Investigators believe Lyubov is suffering from "pronounced signs of anorexia", said reports.
A neighbour who entered the flat after summoning police due to the girl’s desperate crying said: “We almost fainted at the condition of the apartment and from the smell."
Describing the horrific scene, the neighbour said the rubbish was “rotting and smelled foul. A five-year-old girl was sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen in a hat and T-shirt with no underwear.
“She was crying. There was no food [and] there were cockroaches everywhere.”
Neighbours said that five years ago the mother had brought a baby home, but she later claimed the child had gone to live with a grandmother.
Her husband was understood to have been deported to Ukraine.
Media in Moscow said the child may not have seen the outside world since she was a baby.
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After cops rescued the girl, her mum returned and was prevented from fleeing again by neighbours, say multiple reports.
She was detained by police on suspicion of "attempted murder".
Neighbours said the woman was often “dressed well”, claimed to have a professional job, and swept communal areas of the apartment block.
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