Baby dies in Spain on airport luggage belt

MADRID – A five-month-old baby died in a Spanish airport on Thursday after being placed on a luggage belt that then started moving without its parents noticing, officials said.

The baby was at the baggage claim with its mother – a US national – and its Canadian father after a flight from London early Thursday morning in the eastern seaside city of Alicante, an airport spokeswoman told AFP.

“The five-month old baby was on the belt. I don’t know if it was placed on it directly, or in a cradle,” she said.

“It was about two o’clock in the morning, on the belt for retrieving special baggage, where children’s push chairs and large items come out,” which was activated when the parents were not looking, the spokeswoman added.

“The airport medical service tried to resuscitate the baby but they could not do anything.”

Police were “investigating the exact circumstances”, a Civil Guard spokesman said.

“It all appears to have been an accident, a case of carelessness.”