Newborn found in shoe box

A newborn boy, abandoned in a shoe box in an alley in Cospicua yesterday afternoon, is being nursed back to health at St Luke's Hospital after he was found by three local children yesterday.

The baby's unmarried 19-year-old Maltese mother of Cospicua was traced by the police in the evening and hospitalised for treatment, sources said.

The incident unfolded after two young girls and a boy, who were playing in Guliermu Street - a pedestrian alley on the corner with St Michael's Street - heard a noise at around 3.30 p.m.

Inquisitively they edged towards a closed, white shoe box that was inside a transparent plastic bag and were shocked to find the baby inside.

News spread quickly through the town.

Residents and children who frequently play in the area stood and watched in shock as the police collected the shoe box and evidence for forensic investigation.

One of the teenagers, a 13-year-old boy, nervously recounted that they decided to explore because they believed kittens were inside the box.

"When we lifted the lid of the shoe box, there was a white-skinned baby wrapped in a towel, moving about. He had patches of blood and an umbilical cord, about 30 centimetres long," he said, using his hands to explain.

The boy's story was corroborated by the father of one of the girls, who instinctively ran to the Cospicua police station, situated about 200 metres away, for help.

Police sources said that an ambulance took the baby to hospital. He is being cared for at the hospital's Special Care Baby Unit.

At about 6 p.m., one of the young girls who found the baby sat with a tear-streaked face in the police station, comforted by officers as she recounted her story.

Meanwhile, a chilly breeze blew through Guliermu Street - which was littered with dog excrement and scattered orange peel - sending a shiver down the residents' spines as they theorised over whether the baby could have frozen to death and then been picked up by refuse collectors the next day without anybody realising what had happened.

One woman said rats regularly emerged from the unused store in the alley, roaming the street in search of food.

"Though a tragedy, the baby boy is lucky he was found a short time after being dumped here," she said.

A man who is an ever present fixture in Guliermu Street said he had passed by at about 3.20 p.m. and seen nothing untoward.

"Whoever abandoned the baby must have done it soon after I left, because I'm always here," he said.

Discussing the matter among themselves, the women residents said they knew nobody in the immediate vicinity who had been pregnant.

The police are appealing to anybody who may have information on the case to call 119.