Paramedic arrested over baby son's death

A paramedic has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his three-month-old son, it was reported today.

Police were alerted on Friday after a baby boy was taken to a south London hospital with a serious head injury.

The child, from the south-east London borough of Bexley, died the next day.

A post-mortem examination at the Princess Royal Hospital in Farnborough, Hampshire, suggested there were "suspicious circumstances", Scotland Yard said.

The little boy's twin sister was taken into emergency care after tests showed she had injuries believed to be caused by physical abuse.

Detectives arrested the children's father, a paramedic with London Ambulance Service in his 40s, and his wife, an 999 call operator in her 30s, on Monday afternoon, The Sun reported.

Scotland Yard refused to confirm the identity of those being held but said they were being questioned at south London police stations.

The man was arrested on suspicion of murder and causing grievous bodily harm and the woman on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and allowing or causing the death of a child.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Though we await the result of further tests to establish a formal cause of death, it is believed the child died in suspicious circumstances.

"Further to the death, checks were conducted on the deceased's twin sister that revealed she was recovering from injuries that are believed to be as a result of physical abuse.

"She was subsequently taken into emergency police care."

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Burgess, from the Metropolitan Police's child abuse investigation command, has opened an incident room in Stratford, east London.