The Department of Community Services is trying to identify a baby girl found abandoned in Halifax on the weekend.

Halifax Regional Police responded to a report of an infant found in the 6200 block of Quinpool Road before 5 p.m. Sunday.

Police say a passerby called 911 after spotting the baby around the back of a building. The baby was wearing a diaper and wrapped in a blanket.

She was taken to the IWK Health Centre, where she was examined and deemed healthy.

Kerry McNutt owns a business across the street from where the baby was discovered. He was working when officers arrived.

“Me and my partner had walked out the building for a coffee when we saw Halifax Regional Police had pulled up out front. We noticed the officer was concerned. She ran across the street, looked like she was in a bit of a panic,” McNutt says.

"It's just something you never want to see happen."

Police and hospital staff weren’t able to identify the baby or her parents, so the Department of Community Services attended the hospital and took custody of the child.

“In these circumstances the safety of the child and the best interest of the child are paramount and we take that very seriously,” says Wendy Bungay of the Department of Community Services.

“Try to determine who this little girl is and how did she end up where she did, and we’re also concerned, you know, perhaps for the person who left this child there, so we want to find out what happened,” says Const. Dianne Penfound, spokesperson for the Halifax Regional Police.

Penfound says it’s too early to say whether criminal charges will be laid, but it is a possibility.

“In order to determine if those would be warranted, we really need to know more about what exactly happened,” she says. “I don’t know what the circumstances are.”

The baby is described as being of African-Canadian descent and roughly four to five weeks old.

Police are pleading for the parents to come forward.

“I just believe it would be the right thing to do to come forward,” Penfound says. “I don't know what the circumstances are, but we want to learn why they felt leaving the child where they did was the right thing to do, and we'll go from there.”

Anyone with information about the incident or the identity of the baby is asked to contact Halifax Regional Police or Crime Stoppers.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl.