Woman, 22, who left baby in light shaft, being treated for shock

A 22-year-old woman who allegedly told the police that she left her newly-born infant in the light shaft of the Athens apartment block where she lives shortly after living birth was receiving treatment for shock in the capital's Alexandra hospital on Wednesday.

According to investigators, the woman told police that she gave birth in the bathtub of her home in Nea Smyrni last Friday, used a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord herself and threw the placenta in the trash.

She subsequently wrapped the infant in a sheet and left it at the bottom of the light shaft, according to police who found the baby's body on Saturday. 

A coroner concluded that the baby boy, which was found wrapped in a sheet with the umbilical cord still attached, probably died due to pathological causes following its abandonment.

According to a police investigation, the woman was a...