Hour-old baby found alive by dog walker in below-freezing temperatures: London police

News

By Alyssa Guzman

A baby girl who wasn’t even an hour old was found in a shopping bag in below-freezing temperatures in East London by a dog walker, police said.

The abandoned newborn, who hospital staff named Elsa after the main character in the Disney movie “Frozen,” was discovered at the junction of Greenway and High Street South in Newham by a dog walker.

The dog walker heard the child crying and then found her inside the bag, according to Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Simon Crick.

Metropolitan Police said the infant was less than an hour old and was found wrapped in blankets inside the shopping bag around 9:15 p.m.

Temperatures sunk to a bitter 24 degrees Fahrenheit and the dog walker “kept that baby girl warm” until an ambulance arrived.

“I’m delighted to report that she was not injured in any way,” Chief Superintendent Simon Crick said at a news conference. He also revealed the baby is doing “well.”

Crick said that the dog walker didn’t know how long the baby had been left there and encouraged the mother to come forward for help.

“We are extremely concerned for her welfare as she will have been through a traumatic ordeal,” Crick said. He said the mother will more than likely need medical care after giving birth and advised her that “no matter what your circumstances, please seek help.”

Police are looking into CCTV cameras around the busy junction and are encouraging anyone that saw something to step forward.

Last month, a couple adopted a Florida baby who had been left in the woods an hour after her birth.

The baby was found still attached to her placenta after a nearby resident heard her cries.

The neighbor thought it was a cat screaming, but after the cries began again, she went outside and determined they were human cries.

The child had been wrapped in “some old blankets” and she was found in temperatures that ranged in the 50s.