A baby boy who was snatched from a maternity ward just hours after his birth at the weekend has been recovered at the home of a nurse who worked in the hospital, Malaysian police said Thursday.

"The baby is safe and we have sent him to hospital for a check-up," district police chief Law Hong Soon told AFP.

The child's distraught parents had threatened to sue the hospital in Sungai Petani, Kedah after the child was taken on Sunday, claiming medical authorities did not act until four hours after the disappearance.

Law said that a combination of investigative work and information from the public led police to a house in a village near Sungai Petani in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Depressed nurse

Two people have been detained in connection with the case, including a nurse who worked at the hospital, he said, without disclosing the identity of the other person involved.

According to the Star newspaper's website, the nurse is believed to have been suffering from depression after her own baby died. Law declined to confirm the woman's background.

The kidnapping shocked Malaysians, making front-page news throughout the week, and prompted tighter security at hospital nurseries around the country.