This video allegedly shows a teenage girl babysitter trying to suffocate a baby by holding a cloth over his face, resulting in her arrest.

The incident took place in the neighbourhood of Cruzeiro Velho in the administrative region of Cruzeiro in Brazil’s Federal District on Monday, 22nd November.

Security camera footage shows how the 18-year-old, name not reported, covers the crying five-month-old boy’s face with a cloth for about 10 seconds as he kicks his legs.

The baby’s mother is seen noticing what is going on and runs over to the living room and apparently questions the babysitter about what she was doing.

According to the unnamed 33-year-old mother, who is a civil servant, she then locked herself in the room with her son, asked the babysitter to leave, and called the Military Police (Brazil’s preventive police force).

The mother was with the babysitter at the time because it was only her second time looking after the baby and she wanted to keep an eye on her to make sure all would be okay in future.

The babysitter told the mother at the time and later told the police following her arrest on the day of the incident that she was just wiping the baby’s nose.

The young woman told the police she worked as a babysitter from time to time and, according to her CV, she used to work as a sales assistant and as a kindergarten and nursery assistant.

The child, who the police said had no visible injuries, was taken for a medical checkup.

The baby’s mother said, as reported in the news portal G1: “I was scared. I didn’t believe a human being was capable of doing such a thing.

“He was suffocated twice. The suffocation leaves no obvious aftereffects, but it can result in neurological sequelae and, consequently, death.”

The Civil Police (Brazil’s investigative police force) is investigating the case, which it has registered under ‘ill-treatment’. It was not reported if the suspect was remanded in custody.