A one-year-old girl is recovering after being thrown down a garbage chute on Staten Island, New York on Monday, police said.

Investigators say the child’s father called 911 about 3.15pm local time and officers quickly responded to an apartment building at 195 Steuben Street near Weser Avenue in the Park Hill section of the borough.

Police found the little girl with abrasions to the torso.

She was rushed to Richmond University Hospital in stable condition and is expected to recover.

Police said a 39-year-old man was taken into custody.

Police sources say he is the one-year-old’s uncle. He has not been charged.

‘I’m going to pray that God wraps his arms around this family’

An NYPD officer was seen on the third floor standing in front of the garbage chute and just down the hall was the family’s apartment with the door open.

Neighbour Milton Franklin told CBS News New York the family has lived in the building for a while.

“I’m lost for words right now because I’m just … a baby down a garbage chute is just … it’s absolutely mindboggling,” Franklin said.

He said he was coming home from work on Monday afternoon when he saw several emergency crews outside the building and a distraught woman carrying a child to an ambulance.

“I’m going to pray that God wraps his arms around this family and they get through this situation,” Franklin said.

“It makes me feel so depressed. It makes me feel bad about who can do a thing like that,” neighbour Froylan Zapata added.