British mother arrested after baby found dead in France

A British woman has been arrested in south-west France after her five-month-old baby was found dead during a family holiday.

The town hall at Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle, where the family was staying Public domain/Havang(nl)

The woman in her 30s was arrested on Saturday after the baby's father reported the death and a doctor declared that it was not from natural causes.

The couple were on a week-long holiday near Bayonne, in the French Basque country, with their two children, the baby and a three-year-old.

They were due to leave the house they had rented on Saturday afternoon.

The father woke up early and left the bedroom, which all four were apparently sharing, according to a, official from the Bayonne prosecutor's office.

The mother got up later, around 9.00am and it was then that the father discovered that the baby was dead and alerted the emergency services.

Investigators "very quickly" suspected the mother, according to deputy prosecutor Marc Mariée, and the regional paper Sud-Ouest reports that she appears to have smothered the baby.

A post-mortem will be carried out next week.