In what appeared to be an unprecedented abduction, even in the world's kidnapping capital, an unborn baby was snatched from its mother's womb in Colombia this week.
Both baby and mother survived the ordeal, which took place about 70 miles southwest of Bogota, where a female kidnapper drugged the pregnant woman on Wednesday as she left a health clinic in the town of Girardot, authorities said.
The kidnapper then led her to a house nearby, where a group of criminals cut open her womb with what police say may have been a kitchen knife. The baby boy was eight months developed.
"When I felt my belly, it was empty. And the baby was crying and crying," Angela Cartagena, speaking faintly from her hospital bed, told local television.
"Finally, I saw when she (the kidnapper) left with the baby, all wrapped up," she added.
Left for dead, the mother crawled from the house where the operation was performed. Bleeding profusely, she still was able to find help before losing consciousness.
Police said they captured the kidnapper on Thursday, and recovered the baby who is now in hospital with his mother. They said the wiry kidnapper, shown on television with long, scraggly hair, had told police it was her baby -- until a medical examination proved otherwise.
Police said they did not believe she acted alone, and were still searching for other suspects involved in the surgery.
More 2,200 people were kidnapped in Colombia last year alone, including 349 children. Most of the kidnapping victims are sold off for ransom by Marxist rebels looking to fill war chests, and by common criminals.