‘This whole case is extraordinary’: survival of Baby Elsa and her siblings was a miracle

All three babies were seemingly left to die, but child abandonment is now rare and little is known about parents' motivation

It was a miracle Baby Elsa survived. Less than an hour old, her umbilical cord still attached, she was found abandoned on a scrap of parkland in January by a passing dog-walker. She was in a bag, wrapped in just a towel, despite sub-zero temperatures.

That she lived is rare enough. That she has two older siblings, who were also saved after being abandoned as newborns in similar circumstances, in the same neighbourhood of east London, makes this case possibly unique.