Six-day-old panda dies at Tokyo zoo

A giant panda born at a Tokyo zoo last week has died.

Tokyo's Ueno Zoo said the six-day-old panda died of pneumonia this morning.

A zookeeper found it lying belly up, without breathing, on its seven-year-old mother's chest.

The male cub, which had not been named yet, died an hour later despite heart massage.

It was the first panda born at the zoo since 1988 and was conceived naturally.

Its mother, Shin Shin, was brought from China just before Japan's tsunami and earthquake disasters last year.

The much anticipated baby had been celebrated across Japan, and the news of its death topped afternoon television news today.

Giant pandas have a low birth rate, and artificial insemination is common in captive breeding programmes.