Chinese police retrieve stolen newborn

Liu Xianhong kisses her son on Thursday after they were reunited at a hospital in Tongcheng, Hubei province. The boy was stolen from the hospital on Sunday, 30 hours after being born. Police have arrested a suspect, who they say decided to steal a baby because she is infertile. Photo provided to China Daily

Police in central China's Hubei province on Thursday captured a kidnapper and retrieved a newborn four days after he was stolen at two days old.

The infant boy, born to Liu Xianhong from the village of Luotang in Tongcheng county, went missing on Sunday afternoon from the People's Hospital of Tongcheng, where he was delivered early Saturday morning, sources with the county's police said.

More than 100 police officers from Tongcheng were immediately mobilized in the search for the abductor and the stolen baby, the sources said.

The police officers identified a female suspect, surnamed Wang, on Wednesday after reviewing video clips from monitoring devices and interviewing several local residents during the massive man-hunt.

Wang was captured early Thursday morning in a hotel in neighboring Chongyang County.

The infant was later returned to his parents, who had not seen him for more than 90 hours. He is in normal and stable condition.

Liu said her son was taken away while she left the hospital ward to use the toilet, leaving the baby unattended.

Police cited the suspect, Wang, as saying that she had stolen the baby because she had never given birth to a boy, and hoped to gain trust from her lover through the stolen baby.

Wang has been detained for suspected child abduction, police said.

Further investigation into the case is under way.

Frequent reports of baby and child theft and abduction cases in China have sparked a wave of public outcry for better protection of children and harsher punishment for the criminals.