Police have urged the mother of a newborn baby boy, who was found dead inside a Marks & Spencer bag outside a church in west London, to come forward.A council refuse worker made the discovery after spotting the black bag with avocados on it outside All Saints’ Church, off Talbot Road in Notting Hill, at 12.46pm on Tuesday afternoon.The Metropolitan Police on Wednesday reiterated calls for the mother, who is thought to have recently given birth, to come forward “for her welfare and health”.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Superintendent Owen Rinaldin and I'm the lead for policing in Kensington and Chelsea.
00:11I'm going to give you an update today following the tragic discovery of the body of a newborn baby here yesterday afternoon.
00:20Local officers have worked through the night and continue enquiries this morning to locate the mother of the baby.
00:28We were called at 12.46pm to All Saints Church near Talbot Road following the discovery of a newborn baby in a shopping bag.
00:38This was a black Marks and Spencer's bag with pictures of avocados on the side.
00:45The bag was discovered by a council refuse worker who immediately contacted the police.
00:51Officers attended alongside colleagues from the London Ambulance Service but very sadly the baby was pronounced dead at the scene.
01:01We can now confirm that the baby was a boy and we believe that he was a newborn when he died.
01:08I want to praise the professionalism in particular of the local refuse worker and also the responding emergency services who I know will have been deeply affected by the incident yesterday.
01:23As shocking and tragic as this is, my priority remains with the mother's welfare and health.
01:32We are really worried about her wellbeing as she will have recently given birth.
01:38I know she will likely be feeling very frightened and going through an extremely difficult time.
01:47If you are the baby's mother and you see this today, I want to appeal directly to you to come forward and receive help.
01:57My priority is to help you and make sure that you can receive medical assistance.
02:03You can do this at any time by attending any hospital, police station or by calling the emergency services.
02:13I also want to appeal this morning to anyone who may have information that can assist us with our investigation.
02:20In particular if you saw anyone in this area with the Marks and Spencer's bag or saw anything that you felt was unusual.
02:28You can do this by calling 101 or making an online report quoting reference 1879 of today's date.
02:39I know the community here are concerned by what has happened and we will be continuing our close work with our partners to support local people.
02:49The neighbourhood policing teams will be remaining in this area over the coming days and we will also be available today at our regular community drop-in on Thorpe Close which is nearby.
03:01I want to end this morning by repeating my plea to the baby's mother to come forward.
03:07I want to reassure her that our main thoughts are with her wellbeing and getting her any help that she may need.
03:18Excuse me sir.