Boy was alone 'up to six weeks'

It is understood the boy was alone in the building for six weeks

A toddler trapped in an Edinburgh flat with the body of his mother could have survived alone for six weeks.

Three-year-old Michael McGarrity was found emaciated, dehydrated and barely able to stand last Saturday evening.

It was initially believed he had survived for two weeks, but detectives have now said his mother Anne Marie, 33, was last seen alive on 1 September.

It was thought Michael had survived on crisps and fruit juice after the death of his mother.

Police have said they are waiting for the results of further tests before they can confirm when or how Ms McGarrity died.

Plea for information

Investigators have said they want anyone who may have seen the woman after the start of September to get in touch with them.

Michael was discovered when police broke into the fifth floor flat in the Leith district of the capital.

The boy's grandmother Eleanor McGarrity said she had alerted officers after staff at Michael's nursery became worried about him and phoned her.

She was reported to have described the boy as "like a skeleton" and very weak when he was found at the flat in North Fort Street.

Michael was being treated at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

Lothian and Borders Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his mother's death.