Urgent search in Paris after 17-day-old premature baby abducted from hospital

Police in France are hunting for a 17-day-old prematurely born baby boy who was abducted from the maternity ward.

The child was taken from a Paris-region hospital, with his parents identified as the chief suspects.

The Interior Ministry gave the following description: “a man aged 23, dressed in dark jeans, a white T-shirt, a light blue denim jacket and a black overcoat, and a woman aged 25, dressed in a white jumper, a light blue sleeveless jacket and a green skirt.”

Police issued an alert with appeals for information broadcast on radio, television and online.

It said the boy, called Santiago, needs constant medical care.

Officers said he has blond hair and was dressed in white velvet pyjamas and an oversized brown T-shirt when he was abducted on Monday night from a hospital in Paris’ northern suburban region of Seine-Saint-Denis.

The police alert identified the baby‘s 23-year-old father and 25-year-old mother as the only suspects and included photos of them both.

A manager at the Robert-Ballanger hospital told newspaper Le Parisien that he had seen the parents leaving the neonatology department when they were stopped by a nurse.

‘Without a baby in their arms or in a stroller, the couple was only equipped with a simple bag, which did not attract the attention of the hospital staff who were used to seeing parents carrying clothes for their newborn,’ the manager said.

A phone number and an email address were provided for people to contact with information.

Anyone who comes across the parents should call 197 (the national alert number) immediately, or email the Interior Ministry’s alert team at pppj.alerte.enlevement@interieur.gouv.