Police arrest mother: new-born baby thrown to death from high-rise

A 26-year-old Polish woman was being held by German police on homicide charges Wednesday, accused of throwing her new-born baby out the window of her 10th-storey apartment.

Passers-by found the dead baby in a plastic bag in the garden of a high-rise suburban housing estate in the port city of Hamburg. The woman told police her 23-year-old Macedonian boyfriend had grabbed the little girl and flung her out the window on Saturday.

Police said they did not believe her after discovering inconsistencies in her story, and called off a nationwide manhunt for the Macedonian, 23, saying he was no longer under suspicion.

Newspaper reports said the slender woman, who worked as a babysitter, had repeatedly denied to neighbours in the housing estate that she was pregnant. She told police the Macedonian was the father of the child.

Application was made Wednesday to a court to remand her in custody based on witness testimony and forensic evidence. An autopsy showed the baby died of injuries caused by impact with the ground.

Police could not initially tell which window the baby had fallen from. The 21-storey tower-block has hundreds of apartment balconies. It is one of many high-rises built by the municipality amid lawns and gardens to accommodate low-income people, many foreign-born.

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