- Police believe the parents escaped with the child Monday night.
An urgent search is underway for a 17-day-old baby believed to have been kidnapped by his parents from the maternity ward of a hospital in France.
Authorities are widely appealing for information about the disappearance of baby Santiago, who they believe was taken from the hospital hidden in a bag.
The premature child, missing in Seine-Saint-Denis since Monday night, needs “constant medical attention.”
Without medical help, the baby is expected to live only 12 hours, a police source said.
Officers said Santiago has blonde hair and was wearing white velvet pajamas and an oversized brown T-shirt when he was abducted.
The police alert identified the baby’s father, 23, and the mother, 25, as suspects.
The police alert identified the baby’s 23-year-old father and 25-year-old mother as the only suspects and included photographs of both.
They say the parents disappeared on Monday night between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., before the kidnapping alert was raised on Tuesday morning.
It was unclear why the baby had been kidnapped.
A director at the Robert-Ballanger hospital told Le Parisien that he had seen the parents leaving the neonatology department when a nurse stopped them.
The nurse asked if they would be back at midnight and they said yes.
“Without a baby in arms or in a stroller, the couple was only equipped with a simple bag, which did not attract the attention of hospital staff, who were used to seeing parents carrying clothes for their newborn,” said the manager.
The police ask that if a citizen finds the child, they do not intervene directly, but rather call emergency services.