A desperate hunt for a missing four-day-old baby was continuing today after police discovered a body believed to be her mother.

Charlotte Bevan disappeared from hospital with her daughter Zaani Tiana on Tuesday evening.

The 30-year-old was caught on CCTV walking out of Bristol Maternity Hospital in slippers and without a coat with her newborn wrapped in a blanket in her arms.

In a development last night, Avon and Somerset Police revealed an adult body was found in the nearby Avon Gorge and Miss Bevan’s family had been informed.

Formal identification was taking place today as specialist search teams with sniffer dogs continued to search the gorge for the baby.

It is believed Miss Bevan may have stopped taking medication for depression so that she could breastfeed Zaani. She is also understood to have been treated for schizophrenia.

A police spokesman said: “Searches are continuing on the ground but at the moment only one body, a woman, has been found”.

Miss Bevan’s disappearance sparked a widespread police search as her worried mother and boyfriend pleaded with her to come home.

Pascal Malbrouck, 37, Miss Bevan’s boyfriend and Zaani’s father, had yesterday issued a heartfelt plea for her to “please come back” and spoken of how they were excited to be new parents.

Her mother, Rachel Fortune, also appealed for her daughter to get in touch, telling her: “We all really enjoyed seeing you be such a good mother. Let’s go forward with that. Please get in touch. We all love you. Just get in touch, please get in touch.”

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Crisp said Ms Bevan had been making “great progress” and was due to be discharged from hospital in a day or two.

But she shocked staff by walking out and not telling anyone where she was going.

Hours before she went missing, Miss Bevan posted a self-help video on her Facebook page called Get Through Positive And Negative Thinking Rough Patches.

But just days before the birth she had posted happy pictures of herself with her baby bump on the social networking site, where she also described herself as a “free spirit”.

In a message to another pregnant friend, she wrote: “enjoy these special times xxx”.