Mother smothers baby while breast-feeding

London: A breast-feeding mother accidentally smothered her four-week-old child aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington to Kuwait, a British tabloid reported.

The Sun newspaper said that the mother, who it said was a 29-year-old Egyptian-born woman, fell asleep as she breast-fed on the jet and awoke to find that the child had been smothered. The paper said the plane was diverted to London's Heathrow in an attempt to save the baby's life.

The paper cited an unnamed police source in its reporting. Scotland Yard confirmed that a United Airlines plane had been diverted to Heathrow in late November after reports that a four-week-old girl was in distress. The police said in a statement that the baby was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. It added that an autopsy had been performed, but the results were still pending.

"The death is being treated as unexplained and the Child Abuse Investigation Team is investigating the circumstances," the statement said.

Scotland Yard did not go into further detail, although Britain's Press Association news agency said that such investigations were standard practice. A police spokesman declined to comment but noted that there had been no arrests.