Newborn baby found in bag

SHARJAH // A baby was found in a bag hanging from a car's side mirror last week, police say.

The boy, thought to be about one day old, was found early on Wednesday by worshippers heading for morning prayers who heard him crying.

The worshippers in Abu Shagara alerted police and an ambulance took the baby to Al Qassimi Hospital.

The baby's condition was stable, said Naeema Khamis Al Nakhi, the director of social services at the hospital.

"He will be kept in the hospital like other abandoned children until the age of five or six, when he can be transferred to a children's home care centre," she said.

She said the hospital had already opened a medical file for the boy and provided him with a health card for immunisations.

Police have had recent success in tracking parents who have abandoned their babies.

In August, the parents of two infants left in a Sharjah mosque were arrested, while last year Ajman police detained the parents of a baby girl found in a basket.

Umm Al Qaiwain Hospital reunited a six-year-old Omani boy with his father last year after the boy spent five years in the hospital's care centre.

ykakande@thenational.ae