MADRID — A five-month-old boy has been trapped and killed on a baggage carousel at a Spanish airport after he was left on the conveyor belt briefly as his mother reached out for something.

The horrifying incident happened at about 11.30pm on Wednesday (Sept 18) as the boy’s American mother just flew into Alicante-Elche airport with her baby and another young child on an easyJet flight from Gatwick, London. Her Canadian husband was waiting for the family in the arrivals zone.

The weight of the baby carrier was believed to have activated the special carousel for outsized luggage, carrying the infant off to the entrance of the bag drop, a Spanish police spokesman said.

“The mother left the baby on the conveyor belt, which can be activated by detecting weight or by an airport employee,” a Guardia Civil spokesman said.

“It seems that the baby carrier’s weight activated the belt and the child was trapped in the rollers in the drop zone.”

Guardia Civil officers on duty at the airport alerted the emergency services.

Despite attempts to resuscitate the baby, he was pronounced dead by the airport’s on-call doctor at the scene.

Emergency services received a call requesting psychological counselling for the family, an emergency services spokeswoman said.

A Guardia Civil spokesman said: “We are still in the early stages of the investigation and looking at CCTV footage, but it seems that it was an accident.

The US embassy in Madrid said it was aware of the incident but could not provide further information. THE GUARDIAN