BERLIN: German police said on Thursday they were investigating a refugee couple after their one-month-old baby was put on sale at an online auction platform – eBay – for 5,000 euros ($5,500). Police launched a probe into possible human trafficking after they were tipped off about the advertisement which appeared online for around 30 minutes on Tuesday. The 40-day-old girl has been handed to child protection officers, police from the western city of Duisburg said in a statement. Police raiding the couple’s apartment also took away material potentially serving as evidence. Preliminary investigations show that the advertisement was put up using the couple’s internet connection – identified by police only as ‘refugees’. However, police said the internet connection was also in use by other members of the family, adding that the probe was on-going. According to media reports, several photographs of the infant were seen in the advertisement – which was titled ‘40-day-old child named Maria …for sale’. A spokesman from eBay said that the company had alerted the authorities after noticing the advert on Tuesday.