The photo of a baby in the arms of a Norwegian soldier aboard an evacuation flight from Afghanistan caused a stir on social media.

The picture that a correspondent for the US broadcaster CBS News shared on Twitter on Saturday shows the infant wrapped in a bright blanket on the lap of a soldier in full uniform.

The child seems to be sleeping.

A spokesman for the Norwegian military confirmed the authenticity of the photo shared a thousand times for the broadcaster NRK, but did not want to provide any further information.

According to the Norwegian Terje Watterdal, who claims to have been on board the same plane, several children are said to have been on board the flight to Tbilisi, Georgia.

He also had a little boy in his arms at times, Watterdal told the NRK broadcaster.

The CBS journalist also wrote on Twitter of "a large number of children, from babies to teenagers, traveling alone."

A number of Twitter users were shocked by the scene and expressed their condolences to the child's parents.

According to NRK, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry did not want to provide any further information about the people on board the rescue flights in order to protect their privacy.

Child passed over airport wall

Similar reactions had previously been triggered by a video from the airport in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which shows a baby being handed over to US soldiers over a wall with barbed wire.

He is now back with his father after receiving medical treatment, as Pentagon spokesman John Kirby announced on Friday.

"The parent asked the Marines to look after the baby because the baby was sick," Kirby said.

The US soldier pulled the toddler over the wall and brought it to a Norwegian hospital on the airport premises.

The video shows the soldier handing the baby to another soldier.

"They treated the child and returned the child to his father," said Kirby.

He spoke of an "act of compassion" by the US soldiers.

The US Department of Defense spokesman could not say where the baby and his father are now.

“I don't know where you are now.” He also doesn't know whether the father might be an Afghan local employee who is applying for a special visa for the United States.

Dramatic scenes recently took place at the airport in Kabul: After the radical Islamic Taliban came to power, Afghans tried desperately to get into the airport and on board evacuation planes.

Many Afghan local forces in the Western troops during the 20-year conflict fear acts of revenge by the Taliban.