An abandoned newborn baby girl was saved from starving to death when a heroine cop breastfed her while they waited for paramedics.

New mother Luisa Fernanda Urrea - a police officer in La Marina, Colombia - had been called to a remote forest settlement when locals found the baby in the undergrowth.

Medics say that without her maternal support, the hours-old baby might have succumbed to starvation and hypothermia.

She told local media: 'I'm a new mother and I have milk and I recognised the needs that this poor little creature had.'

She added: 'I think any woman would have given her nourishment in the same circumstances.'