ALOR SETAR, MALAYSIA - Police have detained a 25-year-old trainee nurse for allegedly abandoning her newborn baby behind a house at Jalan Kedondong, Pokok Sena, near here.

Kota Setar CID chief Deputy Supt Fiesal Libertus Abdullah said yesterday the baby was found dead with the umbilical cord still attached on Saturday evening.

Police had earlier received a report from a doctor at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital about the trainee, who had complained of excessive bleeding.

"The doctor suspected something amiss because the woman's condition was similar to someone who had just given birth.

"She later admitted that she had delivered a baby on Friday," he said.

DSP Fiesal said police went to the location where the woman said she had abandoned the baby's body. They found the infant wrapped in a sari behind the abandoned house.

He said a post mortem showed the baby suffered a fractured skull.

He said the woman was being warded at the hospital, adding that police would detain her to facilitate investigation after she had recovered.

The Star/Asia News Network