TWO babies left by their childminder in a taxi which had driven them to Newry RUC station on Thursday evening were returned to their mother by social workers yesterday.
The children, a nine month old girl and an 18 month old boy, had spent Thursday night with a foster family after the incident, which had led to initial reports that they had been "abandoned".
The RUC said a taxi driver had been asked by the woman who was minding the children to take them and her to two addresses in Newry, where she tried to get someone to take custody of the babies, but failed.
She then asked him to take the three of them to Warrenpoint to try to have someone there take custody of the children. The taxi driver, however, became concerned at this point about the children's welfare and drove to Newry RUC station.
When they arrived there, the woman jumped out of the taxi and set off towards the town centre, leaving the babies in the taxi. The taxi man took them into the police station, where they were cared for by male and female officers until social services personnel arrived.
Later on Thursday night, the RUC managed to contact the children's mother, who had travelled to a resort in Co Louth for the day after arranging that the children would be looked after by a neighbour.
Social workers said yesterday they were satisfied the mother had not abandoned the babies.