Police in Northern Ireland were last night investigating the death of a newborn baby after the discovery of her body in a burning bag dumped on a country roadside.
A 22-year-old woman, arrested for questioning about the baby girl's death following the grim discovery early yesterday, was released without charge last night.
The body was found by a farmer outside Ballyclare, Co Antrim, after he spotted a car parked on a hillside road and then a fire starting before the vehicle drove off.
The farmer, who asked not to be named, said he was horrified after raising the alarm and being told by police that a baby had been in the burning plastic bag he found near his farm in the Carnlea Road area of Dunamoy.
He said he just happened to be in his farmyard at around midnight when he noticed a car parked on a nearby hill road.
"I then saw a fire starting beside the car and I waited a minute or two until the car left and then went over to see what was happening," he said.
"I saw the bag on fire and stamped on it to try to put it out. I felt a hard object in the bag and kicked it out of the way of the fire into a field.
"I didn't know what it was at the time, I thought it was a dead animal and as a farmer I see that type of thing quite a bit."
The farmer then contacted the police who arrived within minutes and told him of the shock discovery.
"The police shone a torch into the field, then told me what it was I kicked out of the bag - it was a baby."
The PSNI confirmed that the young woman arrested for questioning had been released without charge and their inquiry into the suspicious death was continuing.