An unidentified woman stole a newborn from the maternity ward of the Kanpur Medical College on Wednesday.

The incident comes close on the heels of a series of baby-swapping incidents in Hyderabad.

"We are trying to track down the culprit from the description given by the mother Snehlata," a police official in Kanpur told rediff.com

Police suspect the hand of a gang behind the incident.

"It started with the arrival of a middle-aged woman in the ward... she woke up Snehlata and greeted her like a relative. Within a few minutes the smart operator managed to win Snehlata's confidence... and the mother chose to go to the toilet leaving the infant alone in the woman's lap," he said.

When she returned she found her baby and the woman missing.

Later, the infant's parents lodged a report with the police.

A senior police official blamed the incident on the 'gullibility and negligence' of the mother.

"This is the third such case in the hospital in the past one year," said a senior doctor. "But the police takes it quite casually with the result that such rogues get away..."