A newborn baby has died after it was abandoned in an airport toilet by its mother who reportedly left the infant because she didn't want to miss her flight.

The baby was found alive in the toilets of Vienna's Schwechat International Airport in Austria by cleaners at around 2am on 10 November. Emergency services were called "immediately" but the child later died in hospital.

The baby’s mother, 27, was found close by in the airport terminal "minutes later" in an “unstable condition” and was taken to hospital along with the child. She is said to be recovering.

Local media report that the mother left the infant in order not to miss her connecting flight for her journey between Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to Washington DC.

The woman, said to be a Nigerian student, has reportedly been arrested and put in pre-trial detention, while officials have ordered a post-mortem to establish the child’s death.

Peter Kleeman, press spokesperson for Vienna airport, told The Independent: “I can confirm that on the night of Wednesday 9 November a new born baby was found by airport staff in the toilet in one of the terminals, still alive.

“Staff called an ambulance and the local authorities immediately. The mother was found a few minutes later lying nearby in an unstable condition. There aren’t many people in the terminal at that time of night because we don’t have many night time flights, which explains why she wasn’t seen sooner.