A man has admitted putting his baby daughter up for sale on eBay but claimed he did it for a joke, German police said.

The girl was listed on the internet auction site for €5,000 (£4,522), along with a description which read: "A small child, 40 days old and named Maria, for sale."

Alarmed eBay users alerted the police, who launched an investigation into suspected human trafficking.

After raiding her parents' apartment in Duisburg, western Germany, officers placed the child into care.

Following a probe into the listing, police said the girl's father admitted that he was responsible and gave investigators the mobile phone he used to access eBay.


However, the 28-year-old previously denied posting the ad and claimed his phone went missing before it went live, Deutsche Welle reports.

Police described the family as refugees, but did not give further details.

The advert went viral on social media sites after being placed online.

In a statement, a spokesman for eBay said the site removed the listing as soon as it came to light.

He said: "We received a lot of complaints from users and we immediately pursued the matter.

"In such a case, we provide the authorities with all available information."

He added: "We immediately ban these providers.

"'We have specially trained teams which keep track on such cases and quickly react."