Premature baby abducted in France: Police find baby in the Netherlands

Paris/Amsterdam - A premature baby kidnappedfrom a French hospital has been found in the Netherlands four days after disappearing.

The premature baby was immediately taken back to hospital. (symbolic image)
The premature baby was immediately taken back to hospital. (symbolic image)  © picture alliance / Holger Hollemann/dpa

The baby was discovered together with his parents in a hotel in Amsterdam, the police in the Dutch capital confirmed.

The baby was taken to hospital. The parents were arrested.

The authorities had been searching for Santiago, who was only about three weeks old, for days. They assumed that his 23 and 25-year-old parents had abducted him from a hospital in the Paris area on Monday. They are said to have then fled with him to Belgium.

According to the Bobigny public prosecutor's office, two people close to the parents admitted to having accompanied the couple on their way to the neighboring country. The Belgian police also launched a manhunt for the baby and the parents.

The child was born prematurely and, according to the authorities, requires urgent medical assistance.

Public prosecutor Éric Mathais said that the child had been in an incubator at the hospital and had also been given a feeding tube and special premature milk.

He had called on the parents, who had been convicted several times in other cases, to take their baby to the nearest hospital immediately.