When the mother of a 5-month-old who was killed at an airport in Spain set her son down on a carousel's conveyor belt, it wasn't moving.
But soon afterward, it chugged into motion, carrying the child to the end of the belt, where conveyor rollers crushed his head, a spokesperson for the Spanish Civil Guard told CNN.
The child's mother, an American woman who has not been named, arrived at Alicante airport Wednesday evening, after a flight from London's Gatwick airport. She had the baby and another child in tow. The father, a Canadian, had already arrived at the airport and was waiting for his wife and children.
A security guard at the airport told news service Atlas that the "mother apparently put [the baby] down on the conveyer belt when she went to reach for something. He was crushed by the conveyer belt and it killed him."
The bleeding child was pronounced dead at the airport, but officials still called for medical attention. They rushed to the scene, but could not revive the baby, the Civil Guard spokesperson told CNN.
The spokesperson said that the belt at the carousel for oversized luggage starts moving only when oversized luggage makes contact with the belt, and that the child's weight set the conveyor belt in motion. The flat belt moves only in one direction - at the end of the line, horizontal rollers slow down the luggage to allow patrons to grab their belongings.
After medical officials announced that the baby had died, the parents had to wait for a judge to come to the airport to move the body, per Spanish law. Statements were collected from the parents by Civil Guards.
The Civil Guard reported that the incident is being treated as an accident.
According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the family traveled to the Alicante area, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, for vacation. Authorities have not yet confirmed this detail.
