A U.S. teenager was arrested in Paris for allegedly throwing her newborn out of a hotel window, killing the baby, French authorities said Tuesday.
The young mother, identified by local media as an 18-year-old American student, was part of a group of young adults from the U.S. traveling through Europe, according to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
She’s accused of throwing the infant from a second-floor room in an eastern Paris hotel in the early hours of Monday, Paris Match reported.
The baby was found alive in a trash can near the hotel — identified by CNN as an Ibis Styles hotel in the city’s 20th Arrondissement — and then rushed to a nearby hospital.
“The newborn was given emergency care but did not survive,” prosecutors said, according to the Agence France-Presse.
The young woman was traveling with EF Gap Year, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based organization that offers educational travel programs for young adults ages 18 to 22, a company spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
She was taken to a hospital after giving birth and arrested there, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with everyone affected during this difficult time,” the company spokesperson, Adam Bickelman, said in an emailed statement.
“We are fully cooperating with local authorities as they continue their investigation,” Bickelman added. “Counselling support has been offered to all group members, and we are extending our support to the impacted families.”