Beijing - Chinese police have found five babies abandoned in the back of a stolen car and have no idea who they are but suspect they may have been kidnapped, state media reported on Wednesday.

Officers in the northern province of Hebei flagged down a "suspicious" black car in the early hours of Sunday and two men inside, brandishing knives, fled the scene.

Police found the babies, three boys and two girls about 10 days old, in the back, newspapers said.

Police later found the car had been stolen in Shanghai but belonged to somebody from the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

At least one of the male babies could have been taken from a hospital in Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou, it added, and DNA samples had been sent to Hebei.

The babies were in good health and being looked after in a local hospital, the newspaper said.