Mother Arrested for Selling Baby

The mother of a four-month-old boy has been arrested for trying to sell her baby outside a supermarket in a city north of Lisbon.

The woman was arrested Friday along with eight suspected accomplices in Villa Franca de Xira, 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, and the baby was sent to a hospital for observation, the Lusa news agency and the newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.

According to the newspaper, the mother approached passers-by offering them her son for a sum ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 euros (13,500 to 20,300 dollars). The alleged selling went on for several hours on the city"s main street with eight men serving as lookouts.

a woman, claiming she was harassed by the mother, alerted authorities who sent dozens of police to make the arrests, the newspaper said.

"The baby"s mother was on the steps of the supermarket and would not let a woman go. She kept insisting and suggesting different prices to her," a witness, told the paper.

The newspaper reported that the mother and her alleged accomplices were Romanian, but police would not confirm their nationalities.

The baby did not appear to have been mistreated, the paper said.