Pond to be drained in missing baby search

A pond is to be drained in the south of Luxembourg in a bid to find out what happened to missing baby Bianka Bisdorff.

It emerged on Thursday that the five-week-old child was seen being carried by her mother to the pond in rue Jules Hemmer, in Lallingen.

When the mother returned, it was without the child. The pond, which has been searched by divers, is to be drained on Tuesday to enable a more thorough search.

Bianka, who was born on June 6, has been missing since July 3, prompting wide-scale searches and an appeal to the public.

The child's mother has since been arrested and was taken in handcuffs to a site in Linger, where the search is focusing. 

It has emerged that the police found children's clothing and other items in the ruins of a small former Arbed building by the pond in Linger.

DNA found on the items will be compared with that of the mother to determine whether or not the child spent time at the site.

Presently, police are examining two theories: that the child was passed on to a third party or that the mother killed the baby.

The mother, who already has five children which have been taken into care, is known to come from a difficult social environment.

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