Police are expected to classify abandoned baby cases under Section 302 of the Penal Code (murder), and under Section 307 (attempted murder).

Those responsible for babies who die would be investigated for murder while abandoned babies found alive would be classified and investigated as attempted murder.

Bukit Aman CID director Mohd Bakri Zinin said police would investigate according to the classification of the case because such cases are a serious crime.

However, the decision of whether such cases are classified as murder or not would be decided by the Attorney General, he said.

Mohd Bakri said police were concerned with an increase in the number of abandoned baby cases compared with last year, especially those involving locals.

He said this year alone 65 abandoned baby cases were reported.

"Last year 79 such cases were reported but this year, within the first eight months, 65 cases were reported and it is very disappointing," he told reporters at his office in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mohd Bakri said statistics showed that from 2005 to yesterday, 472 babies were abandoned throughout the country, of which, 258 were dead and 214 were still alive.

He said the public must not turn a blind eye to such cases but instead cooperate with the police because individuals who abandoned their babies were normally from that very same area.

"We want the public to provide information to the police when they come across such cases so that police can identify the parents of such babies," he said.

- Bernama