By Genevieve Serre
Police are frantically searching for a newborn baby girl who was snatched from a hospital.
Police say the incident occurred on Monday just hours after Annie Lavelot, 37, gave birth to a baby girl at the Worcester Day Hospital.
Police spokesperson Captain Mzikayise Moloi tells the Daily Voice the mother was discharged from hospital with her daughter when she was approached by a woman.
He says the woman claimed she was looking for someone who had given birth at another hospital.
"She was looking for a woman from Villiersdorp who was supposed to have given birth," says Moloi.
"Mrs Lavelot told the lady she was from Villiersdorp and asked for a lift.
'The lady agreed."
The women walked to benches outside the hospital when the stranger informed her she was waiting for her husband.
Moloi says the woman instructed the mother to sit inside the hospital as it was cold outside.
The woman then asked the mother if she could hold the baby because she could see that she was tired after giving birth.
"After a while the lady told the mother she was going to telephone her husband from a public phone to see how far he was."
Moloi says the mother began to panic and asked people if they saw the woman when she realised that she had vanished with her baby.
Cops say the woman is a coloured female about 1,5m tall.
She was dressed in a yellow dress, white jersey, pink sandals and has a squint in her right eye.
Last year Baby Siphesihle Ncumani vanished from the Tygerberg Hospital.
Five weeks later, cops arrested Bulewa Xeza, 31, of Mfuleni when they found the baby in her care.
Meanwhile the parents of baby Zephany Nurse are still hoping she will be returned home safely after she was snatched from Groote Schuur in 1997.
- Anyone with information on Annie's baby can contact Sergeant Sizwe Gaika on 083 244 4261 or Moloi on 082 411 3064.