Canadian mother abandons newborn in shop toilet

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police are searching for a woman who abandoned her newborn baby in the washroom of a Wal-Mart store in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, and paramedics say they are baffled by what they found.

"This is probably the first time in my 20-year career that I've ever heard of a mother who literally delivers a baby in a facility outside a hospital or a health care clinic and walks away," said Lyle Karasiuk, public information coordinator at Parkland Ambulance in Prince Albert.

Police said they were scouring the town of 60,000 to try to identify the baby's mother and help her get medical attention.

But spokeswoman Rhonda Meakin refused to say if the mother was caught on the store's security cameras when she entered the washroom just before closing time on Monday, for fear of jeopardizing the investigation.

The baby, named John Doe for now, is in a stable but serious condition in hospital in Saskatoon, some 100 km (60 miles) south of Prince Albert.

Just over three months ago a woman abandoned a baby girl outside a Saskatoon home early one winter morning, despite bone chilling temperatures of -29 Celsius (-22 F).

The mother, who turned herself in to police shortly afterward, was a student "from a very difficult background," police said at the time.