Caught Woman smuggles child in hand luggage on Paris-bound plane

A woman flew to Paris using a four-year old girl from Istanbul concealed inside her hand luggage, Air France has said.

An airport source told AFP news agency the girl was a resident of France who had been from Haiti, in the procedure for adopting the child.

The French authorities were notified by the airline but prosecutors decided to not press charges.

She concealed the child in a tote and subsequently purchased a fresh flight ticket.

Once she put the child under a blanket at her feet, but other passengers needed to visit the bathroom and noticed the girl, the source said.

“The cloth bag belonged to a woman sat at the back of the plane. At one point she opened the bag and her neighbour on the other row of seats saw something moving inside. He alerted flight attendants, who then discovered a baby,” a passenger named Vincent told French news website Planet.fr (in French).

While authorities investigate the case, the woman as well as the girl happen to be held at Charles de Gaulle airport.