POLICE have called off a major search after a woman claimed she had dumped her new baby in a Hampshire alleyway.

Detectives said they had arrested a woman at an address in Southampton and new information had led them to call off the hunt.

Scores of officers from Southampton were involved in the huge hunt, which was centred on part of a cemetery in the heart of the city.

The mum, who has called herself Carol, had phoned social services a number of times this morning saying she has dumped the child and at first did not say where.

In subsequent calls she told of an alleyway near St Mary's Extra cemetery in Butts Road, Sholing, where police have been deployed ever since.

Thirty officers including specialist search teams were involved in the operation.