A five-month-old baby girl has been found safe and well two hours after she went missing in Dublin’s north inner city.
She was in the back of a Nissan Qashqui on Mountjoy Square this afternoon.
Her mother had just stepped out of the car when a man jumped in and drove off with the child at around 1.50pm. The man was not known to the child or her family.
The car drove down Mountjoy Square and on to Dorset Street.
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Gardaí became increasingly concerned about the baby’s welfare and issued a child rescue alert just before 4pm this afternoon.
The child was wearing a pink cardigan with ladybugs, a pink headband with a white daisy flower, blue denim leggings and pink ugg boots.
A major garda search operation, including the garda helicopter, was put in place and just before 4.30pm, gardaí announced that the baby had been found safe and well.
They believe this was an opportunistic crime, that the man stole the car and appears to have abandoned it once he discovered there was a baby in it.
Gardaí said that shortly after the CRI alert was issued “the Nissan Qashqai was recovered on North Richmond Street in the north inner city by gardaí on patrol and searching for the vehicle”.
At a press briefing outside Garda HQ, Superintendent Liam Geraghty said gardaí are looking for the suspect and have not made any arrests yet.
“The suspect in this case is best described at this stage as a white, middle-aged male wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap.
“The baby girl was recovered at around 4.05pm. Just over two hours she was missing from her parents. A very traumatic time for her mother and father.”
Asked by reporters if there was any connection between the suspect and the family, Mr Geraghty said: “To the best of our knowledge there’s no connection between the suspect and the family.”
Gardaí are are currently harvesting CCTV footage from the area and an incident room has been established in Mountjoy Garda Station.
They are also appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the car being stolen from Mountjoy Square, and subsequently parked on North Richmond Street, to contact Mountjoy Garda Station on 01 666 8600.
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