THE BODY of a newborn baby girl was discovered at the water’s edge of Olhos d’Água beach in Albufeira on Tuesday morning.
Lifeguards were approached by several people, who told them about the body, which was allegedly inside a plastic bag wrapped in a towel.
The Maritime Police and emergency service INEM were called and an off-duty bombeiro placed a beach towel over the body to avoid distressing people and protect any evidence from the elements.
The local health official pronounced the newborn dead and the body was taken to Barlavento hospital where an autopsy was due to take place on Wednesday to determine the cause of death.
It is possible that the body was spotted before Tuesday, when fishermen went past a bag in the same location the day before and apparently assumed that it was a bag of forgotten towels. The body could therefore have been left there on Monday or even before.
The area where the body was found is not easily accessible when the tide comes in and can only be accessed if people walk across the cliffs, which is why there are seldom lots of people there. The towels were taken for examination and officers went to several hotels in the hope of finding a match for the towels and collected eyewitness statements.
At the time of going to press, the identity of the mother and how and when the body ended up on the beach were unknown.
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