A South Korean couple addicted to an internet game about raising a virtual child were arrested for neglecting their real three-month-old daughter and letting her starve to death, news reports said.

The couple spent between four and six hours every day at internet cafes in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, and bottle-fed their baby only once a day.

The couple found their baby dead on 24 September when they returned home after playing online games at a nearby internet café all night.

The 41-year-old father and his 25-year-old wife, both jobless, went into hiding at a relative's home north of Seoul after a police autopsy found the baby died because of a long period of malnutrition, the report said.