A two-week-old baby girl was killed in southern France when its mother hurled the infant out the window from the eighth floor of their building, officials said Friday, dpa reported.
"The rescue teams could do nothing more (for the child)," a spokesman for local prosecutor said about the incident late Thursday in the city of Toulouse. The baby had fallen about 20 metres.
The 34-year-old mother was arrested shortly afterwards and was taken to a psychiatric clinic. She was apparently at home alone with the baby while her husband, a medical doctor, was away at work.
Medical experts believe it could be a serious case of post-partum psychosis which can affect mothers in the first few weeks after giving birth.
Such cases generally involve various states of emotional and psychological confusion, but can also result in physical violence against one's own child, French psychoanalyst Myriam Szejer said.
To RTL radio, neighbours described the mother as a friendly person who had been very happy about her baby.