HARARE – A woman sneaked into the maternity ward of a clinic in Epworth, Harare, before kidnapping a new-born baby, police said on Thursday.

The woman was intercepted by an alert guard before she could leave the grounds of the Epworth Local Board Clinic on Wednesday.

“The ZRP confirms the arrest of Josie Kanzimbe, 28, whose video has gone viral on social media in connection with a case of kidnapping of a newly-born baby,” a police statement said.

“The suspect sneaked into the maternity ward, took advantage of the mother of the baby who was fast asleep due to labour fatigue and took away the baby. An alert security guard smelt a rat in her actions and reacted fast leading to the suspect’s arrest.”

She would appear in court soon, the police statement added.

Kanzimbe lives in an area known as KwaRex near the Spillway Dam in Epworth – a poor neighbourhood of Harare.

A video circulated online showing the woman being asked a series of questions by two women, thought to be nurses at the clinic.

She admits planning the abduction after she disguised herself as a health worker by stealing a gown and a hat at the clinic.

Kanzimbe said she had been sent to steal babies for a “customer” who sold babies’ heads in South Africa. The “customer” had promised to buy her kombis (minibuses), she said.

“I would have taken the baby alive and then killed it later with an injection,” the woman says in the video.

Some on social media speculated that the woman has mental health problems.