Day-old baby abandoned and zipped up in suitcase saved by hotel porter who heard her cries

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 05:02 EST, 7 January 2011

Police launched a hunt for a mother today after a day-old baby girl was zipped into a suitcase and dumped near a hotel in Hamburg.

The child, who is being called Marie, was only discovered after the case was stored in their unattended luggage room and a porter heard whimpering and opened it.

Hotel security staff  had earlier checked on the small black case after being alerted by a passer-by who had spotted it lying nearby.

A nurse holds baby Marie on at the Altona children's hospital in Hamburg, northern Germany. The abandoned baby girl is healthy, according to police

They partially looked inside, but only saw clothes.

The healthy baby was dressed neatly in a sweater, wrapped in a sleeping bag and is now being cared for at a Hamburg hospital.

A homicide squad is investigating the case because the baby could have easily died. Officers were tonight searching the city train station with dogs.

The small black suitcase in which a day-old baby girl was zipped into and abandoned near a hotel in Hamburg

Doctors at Altona Pediatric Hospital revealed that the girl was underweight at only 4.85 pounds (2.2 kilograms) and 17.72 inches (45 centimeters) long.

They said the umbilical cord had only been tied with a thin thread which most likely meant that the mother gave birth without medical help.

'The child could have easily suffocated or - even though it was well-dressed - frozen to death,' Axel von Wense, the head of the hospital's newborn ward, told the daily newspaper Bild.

Police spokeswoman Karina Sadowsky said: 'We're still asking people to come forward and contact us if they have any knowledge about the case.'