A mother who allegedly abandoned her newborn daughter in a rubbish bag has been arrested after the police found a CCTV clip of the infant being dumped.

The hours-old girl was discovered on the corner of Avellaneda and Los Olivos streets, in the city of Moron, in the eastern Argentine province of Buenos Aires, on the afternoon of 6th April.

According to the local police, a passing cyclist told officers she had heard what she thought was the mewing of a kitten.

To her astonishment, she discovered it had come from a baby wrapped in a jacket and nestled among the rubbish bags.

In the footage, a woman is seen crossing a road while carrying a black bin liner before dropping the bag on a pile of rubbish.

The woman can be seen lingering by the pile for a few seconds before disappearing down a footpath.

The unnamed cyclist called the local authorities and police officers arrived on the scene to find several residents caring for the abandoned infant.

The baby was taken to the Hospital de Moron, where director Jacobo Netel reported that she was in “good general health” despite being admitted with hypothermia.

Netel added that the baby was “a few hours old” and that she arrived at the hospital “with the [umbilical] cord and bloodstains as well as signs of hypothermia, but her recovery will be fine.”

The public prosecutor’s office said an investigation had been opened for child abandonment and that the police were reviewing local CCTV footage to try to establish who dumped the newborn baby at the scene.

As a result of the investigation, the police have now detained the baby’s 42-year-old Paraguayan mother, who reportedly claimed to be unaware of the reason for her arrest.

A gynaecological report later confirmed that the woman had “a belly bulge with an increase in its diameter” as well as bleeding and the remains of what could be the umbilical cord.

Tests are currently being carried out to establish whether she is indeed the baby’s mother as the investigation continues.