The mother of the baby boy, whose body was found floating in the sea off Bedok Jetty on Monday, has been arrested over the death of the infant, said police in a statement on Tuesday.

"Police have classified the case as murder and investigations are ongoing," said a spokesman. Police Coast Guard officers came across the woman, who was seen struggling in the sea off East Coast Park at 6.03pm. The woman, who is in her 40s, was brought safely to shore and was subsequently conveyed conscious to Singapore General Hospital for medical treatment.

"Later on the same day at about 9.22pm, police received a call informing us that the body of a child had been found floating in the sea off Bedok Jetty," said the police. The seventeen-month-old child was retrieved from the waters and pronounced dead by paramedics.

According to Chinese evening papers, the infant's grandfather told reporters at the mortuary on Tuesday morning that both his daughter and her son had gone out for a walk in the rain on Monday. His daughter had recently lost her job in a technology firm, and had been upset since.