The facts occurred Thursday in the Saint-Charles station, while the mother was trying to flee with her child, of whom she did not have custody.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
It was a runaway that nearly cost the life of a premature infant. According to information from France Télévisions, a mother was arrested on Thursday, October 20, at Saint-Charles station in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), with her newborn child, of whom she had lost custody. The child was the subject of a criminal placement order.
The incident occurred around 11 a.m. Thursday. Caregivers at the Conception Hospital (5th arrondissement of Marseille) are sounding the alarm: a three-day-old infant has just been stolen from the maternity ward by his mother and a man. The child is a premature baby, and his physical integrity is in danger. A crew from the BAC, the Anti-Crime Squad, sets out to find them, in vain: they cannot be found.
The police do not know it yet, but the mother is trying to take a train to Carpentras. His escape is stopped thanks to the fortuitous intervention… of a policeman who was not on duty at the time. This agent of the DOPC (Directorate of Public Order and Traffic) returns to Paris after leave with his parents. On the platform, he is then called by an SNCF agent, who recognizes him and explains to him that a couple has a hostile behavior towards the security agents.
The man puts on his police armband, shows his card, to lower the tension. He quickly understands that the woman in front of him has no right to be with her child. More serious: the newborn, compressed in the arms of its mother, “move, scream” and he is “carrier of wires which could be similar to electrodes (…) at the level of the thorax”, according to the police report. While talking with the mother to gain her confidence and not to aggravate the infant’s state of health, the policeman manages to call 17. Warned, the BAC crew arrives a few moments later and challenges the kidnappers.
Supported by firefighters, the child had to be hospitalized urgently in intensive care. The mother and her companion are the subject of an investigation for the abduction of a child under 15 years old.