The five-month-old girl was missing for over two hours before gardaí managed to recover her – but the man was still at large on Monday night.
Gardaí [Irish police] had issued an urgent Child Rescue Ireland (CRI) alert just before 4pm on Monday, saying they had "serious concerns that there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare" of the girl. It followed an earlier public information alert at approximately 3pm about a silver Nissan Qashqai hatchback. The baby girl was in the rear of the car when it was hijacked from Mountjoy Square West in Dublin at approximately 1.50pm.
It is understood that the hijacker, who was described as a "white middle-aged man", did not know the child was in the rear of the vehicle and carried out what gardaí described as an "opportunistic crime".
The CRI alert was canceled and gardaí announced that the girl had been found "safe and well in Dublin city center", along with the vehicle.
Speaking at a Garda briefing in the Phoenix Park on Monday evening, Superintendent Liam Geraghty said: "The suspect in this case is best described at this stage as a white, middle-aged male wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap." He said it was "obviously a very traumatic time" for the mother and father but added: "Thankfully, they were all reunited together shortly after 4pm."
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Asked if there was any connection between the suspect and the family, Mr Geraghty said: "To the best of our knowledge there’s no connection between the suspect and the family."
An incident room has been established at Mountjoy Garda Station, where officers are searching for and harvesting CCTV in the area.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to either the hijacking or the later abandoning of the car to contact them. Officers also said online posts sharing the name and picture of the child, circulated following a Garda appeal, can now be deleted.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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