Hong Kong  - Two newborn girls were given to the wrong mothers for 30 hours in a mix-up at a Hong Kong public hospital, officials said Monday.

The blunder was only discovered when one of the mothers found an identification wrist bracelet belonging to another baby girl in a cot next to the mother's bed, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority said.

The mix-up at Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Hospital on August 7 is believed to have happened when identity tags were wrongly attached to the feet of the two girls who were born 35 minutes apart.

Paper bracelets with the baby's name are initially attached to the infants' wrists before the identity tags with bar codes are put on to their ankles in a post-natal ward.

A hospital authority spokesman said the authority had apologized to both sets of parents and provided the mothers with psychological counselling. Both were first-time mothers.

Blood and DNA tests were carried out on both baby girls after the mix-up and an investigation had been launched to find the cause of the mistake, the spokesman said. (dpa)