Police looking for child ‘snatched’ by mother from hospital

A manhunt was launched on Friday for a mother who allegedly snatched her young child from a hospital where it was receiving treatment for injuries sustained last month after being found abandoned in its home during a fire.

The 14-month-old was admitted to the Aghia Sofia Children's Hospital in northern Athens on January 24 when firefighters found the child alone in the family apartment in downtown Attiki Square after being summoned to put out a blaze.

The child had been placed in the care of the state after the mother was charged with abandoning the child and exposing it to danger, and was still undergoing treatment when its 37-year-old mother allegedly took her from the hospital without permission from the doctors or social workers.