Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Romania's Orthodox Church to change its religious practices after a newborn baby died during a baptism.
According to local media, the baby, who had been born prematurely and was just six weeks old, went into cardio-respiratory arrest after the baptism at a church in Suceava, north-eastern Romania.
The baby's head was immersed under the water three times and the priest only stopped the ritual after noticing the newborn had stopped crying and had turned blue.
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Paramedics managed to resuscitate the baby, however it later died after being transported to the Intensive Care Unit at Suceava County Hospital.
The child's father has lashed out against the priest who conducted the ritual.
He told local media: "The boy was crying, but the priest immersed him three times in water and he inhaled water."
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The tragic death has sparked calls for the practice to be changed, with some people labelling it 'absurd' and 'brutal'.
One petition has attracted 61,000 signatures and the organiser of the campaign said things need to change to prevent another avoidable death.
"Given the tragic situations in which infants died after immersion in the water in the baptismal font, the church must urgently regulate this practice," the petition reads.
"We do not demand the cancellation of the practice of Baptism but its modification, so that these are prevented from unnecessary and even absurd risks!"
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According to Antena 3, police have opened a culpable homicide investigation into the incident.
The Romanian church has been rocked by the case and insists priests are taught how to conduct baptisms safely.
Vasile Bănescu, spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchate, said: "It is, without a doubt, a tragic case, a case that will have to be investigated. Let's not imagine that a child can be put in water without covering his nose, mouth and ears.
"There is a technique that an experienced priest always uses. This is how a baptism is celebrated with the utmost care."
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Vladimir Dumitru started the online petition and insists he doesn't want the church to get rid of the sacred practice.
He told CNN in an email that he wants to see a change in 'that sometimes brutal practice that involves the risk of drowning, especially in the case of children with health problems'.
"The petition is not directed against the institution of the Church or against the priests but has a constructive intention," he said.
"Through this petition we want the practice of baptism to be symbolic by sprinkling the baby on the top of the head and not its complete immersion three times, and this non-invasive practice to become mandatory in all Orthodox Churches in Romania and in the Diaspora."
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