"ANNIVERSARY checks" will be launched in Kidderminster town centre tomorrow as the police step up their efforts to trace the mother of a baby abandoned last Friday.

Officers will be handing out leaflets appealing for information and questioning shoppers and workers who might have seen who abandoned the infant - named Isobel by nurses.

And police have linked up with the Shuttle/Times and News to step up the hunt for the baby's mother.

Isobel is believed to be up to six weeks old and had been well cared for. Foster parents are now looking after her.

The best lead for detectives, so far, is a woman captured on CCTV walking past Boots carrying a black holdall similar to the one in which Isobel was found in the ladies toilets of the Rowland Hill Shopping Centre at about 4.20pm. She was later filmed walking past Marks and Spencer without the bag.

"It may be it's the mother, it may be it's a friend of the mother who has taken the baby for her," said Kidderminster Police spokeswoman Joanne Hammond.

But the poor quality pictures have generated just a handful of calls from the public, despite being widely shown in the media. Experts are now working to sharpen the images to pinpoint details.

Police forces across the country have been alerted as she may not be from Worcestershire and staff from the National Crime Faculty will be supporting Kidderminster detectives.

Mrs Hammond added: "They will be advising what type of inquiries we should be making and what's worked in the past."

A DNA sample has been taken from Isobel and detectives will be searching their database to look for a match with either parent.

Insp Paul Crowley of Kidderminster Police said: "We want to reunite mother and daughter and it is vital that she contacts us as soon as possible. We have some obvious concerns about her medical health as she must have been very desperate to have left her baby in the toilets of the shopping centre."

Mrs Hammond said this case was unusual for two reasons. Firstly, Isobel is not newborn and, after several weeks, a strong bond might be expected between mother and baby.

And, secondly, five days after Isobel was left - as the Shuttle/Times and News went to press - the mother had still not come forward.

Mrs Hammond added: "We approached the Shuttle/Times and News to help because it is dropped on the doormat of virtually every house in the area and is bound to be read by people who were in Kidderminster on that day."

Isobel , who was described by Mrs Hammond as "happy and contented", was found wearing a pink babysuit and a white bib with the wording 'I'm a pretty princess' on it.