36-year-old kidnaps baby from clinic

An infant disappears from a neonatal ward in Husum. A large police force searches for the boy and checks on visitors to the clinic. After a few hours, the child is found unharmed in the apartment of a 36-year-old woman.

A woman has abducted a newborn baby from a clinic in Husum in Schleswig-Holstein. The boy, who was only a few hours old, disappeared from the neonatal ward on Thursday afternoon, according to the police in Flensburg. After an immediate manhunt and investigation by around 30 police officers, the baby was found safe and sound on Thursday evening.

When checking the visitors who had been in the women's clinic that afternoon, the initial suspicion was directed at a 36-year-old woman. When officers searched the home of the suspect, who lives in Nordfriesland, they found the baby asleep. The woman was provisionally arrested and subsequently psychologically examined. According to the information provided, she was in a state of mental distress.

The infant, who was only a few hours old, was medically examined and handed over to his parents in the maternity ward, who received pastoral care. The exact circumstances of the newborn's disappearance are the subject of further investigations. The abduction in Husum is the second incident of this kind within a few weeks. As recently as November, an 18-year-old woman abducted a five-week-old baby from a clinic in Hamburg.

Prior to this, she is said to have lured the child's mother out of the hospital room and away from the baby by presenting false facts. When she returned to the room a short time later, her child was gone. It was not until two hours later that the young woman returned the child unharmed. According to the police, the 18-year-old was also in a state of mental distress at the time of the crime. She was admitted to a psychiatric clinic.