Kidnapped Toulouse baby found safe as dad questioned
A baby that was reported as kidnapped from Toulouse has been found safe and well near Carcassonne, although his father and uncle are now being questioned.
The two-month-old, known only as Tizio, had previously been the subject of a “kidnapping alert” from the Purpan hospital in Toulouse on Friday night (January 5), where he had been under observation for gastric problems and connected to several intravenous lines.
He had been seen with his father in hospital at around 18h00, but was not in his crib at 18h30, at the time when the baby bottles are usually administered in the hospital ward. Three hours’ later, hospital staff found a handwritten note suggesting that the baby’s father had “taken him on a walk”.
The alert was raised when they did not return.
Baby and father were arrested at 20h55 last night, by gendarmerie at Belcaire (Aude), a village found halfway between Carcassonne and Andorra, after the father’s appearance and car number plate and appearance (a while Peugeot 307) had been shared in the original kidnapping alert from Toulouse.
Along with the baby, the father was also with his brother - the baby’s uncle. Both are now in custody and being questioned on their actions and the child’s disappearance.
Although the father and Tizio’s mother had previously separated, the mother has said that she had had no previous problems with him, and they had had a good relationship.
Writing on Twitter, French minister Gérard Collomb congratulated the emergency services and the gendarmerie for their “quick reactions and professionalism” that had allowed them to find “little Tizio”.
