A suspected child trafficker has been arrested in China after allegedly stealing a one-day-old baby from a hospital ward posing as a nurse.
Surveillance footage shows a woman, believed to be the suspect, loitering in the corridor of a hospital in the early morning before leaving one of the wards with a newborn in her arms.
She then walked out of the hospital building calmly, it is claimed.
The baby girl was allegedly snatched from her mother's bed at around 6am on Sunday at Lianjiang Hospital in southern China's Guizhou Province.
Her mother was fast asleep when the suspect abducted her, said her father Mr Lu who was sleeping on a chair in the same ward.
Mr Lu told local media Guiyang Net that he noticed the baby had gone missing shortly afterwards and then rushed to query the nurses.
After discovering that the medics had not taken away the child for examination, the father called the police.
A CCTV clip shared by Guizhou Urban Newspaper shows one of the hospital's workers noticing the suspect as she carried the baby out of the ward - not realising that she was not a nurse.
The suspect was donning a uniform with a facial mask, the video shows.
Mr Lu said his daughter was born at around 6am on Saturday. He said there were around 10 people in the ward at the time of the incident, including him, his wife, three other patients and their family members.
He also alleged that the suspect arrived at the hospital at about 4am and spent more than 40 minutes in a changing room before walking out of the facility looking like a member of the staff.
He said he had followed the police to watch the surveillance footage of the hospital.
Police said they had rescued the baby and arrested the suspect, identified as Li.
The local Huishou County police said in a statement that Li was caught in the Lianjiang district at around 2pm yesterday.
Officers immediately took the baby to the hospital for a physical check-up. She was found to be healthy.
The case is being investigated further.
A convicted human trafficker can be jailed for up to 10 years, according to the Chinese law.
However, Zhang Baoyan, a politician, has urged the government to impose harsher sentences on these criminals to prevent child abduction, a serious societal issue in the country.
Zhang said earlier this year that those found guilty of trafficking women and children should get at least 10 years' imprisonment with a maximum punishment of a death sentence.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
