Search for New Jersey baby ‘thrown from bridge by father’

A man who snatched his baby daughter from her maternal grandmother told police he threw the child off a toll bridge into a freezing New Jersey river.

Search teams scoured the area below the Driscoll bridge for three-month-old Zara Malani-lin Abdur yesterday.

The search was suspended after dark and is planned to resume today.

Shamsiddi Abdur-Raheem, 21, forced his way into the 60-year-old grandmother's flat on Tuesday, hitting and choking her, and took the baby.

Zara's mother, Venetta Benjamin, who has sole custody, was in court seeking a restraining order against him at the time of the abduction.

Abdur-Raheem was arrested four hours later and said he had thrown Zara from the bridge before visiting his imam, who drove him to a relative who called police. He faces charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault.