Swiss Woman kills Baby in Spanish Detention

A 40-year-old Swiss mother who was being hunted by police killed her 10-month-old baby boy by cutting his throat after being caught and arrested in Spain, police and newspaper reports said Thursday.

Spanish police detained the woman on an international arrest warrant on Wednesday in a Carrefour supermarket in the southeastern seaside city of Torrevieja and took her and her baby to hospital so the child could be treated for water on the brain, leading daily El Pais said.

"According to sources in the investigation, the mother said she was going to change the child and then removed a knife from a bag and unexpectedly cut the 10-month old child's throat," the paper said.

"Later, she tried to commit suicide."

A police spokesman confirmed that a mother had killed her 10-month-old son and then tried to commit suicide at a Torrevieja hospital.

He declined to give further details because of the pending judicial investigation.

The woman, named by media as Katharina Katit-Staeheli, had disappeared on Christmas Eve with her baby son, Dylan Katit, who was ill and being treated for water on the brain in the Swiss canton of Zurich, El Pais said.

Swiss police issued an international arrest warrant for the woman with a 2,500-euro ($3,400) award, the paper said.

Spanish news agency EFE quoted police as saying the woman had lost custody of her baby because of the medical treatment the child required, without giving further details.

After the international arrest warrant was issued, the woman was spotted by someone as she shopped in a kiosk in Torrevieja, El Pais said. Police were alerted, and arrested her in the supermarket.