Greek police arrested a 20-year-old British woman on Monday on suspicion of strangling her baby after giving birth in a hotel room on the Mediterranean tourist island of Crete, a police spokesman said.

The woman, who was not named, was arrested at the resort of Malia on Crete's north coast, a popular package tourism destination for Britons.

Police were notified when local residents rushed her to hospital to receive treatment for heavy bleeding, after she gave birth to the baby in her room, the official said.

"A young British girl, 20-years-old, has been arrested in Malia on suspicion of child murder," police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said in Athens. "She will be taken before the prosecutor, who will decide the charges."

An official at the British embassy in Athens confirmed a woman was receiving consular assistance after the death of her child, but declined to comment on police matters.

Police found the dead child in the hotel room with sheets around its neck and covering its face, the spokesman said. A coroner's report concluded the child had died of asphyxiation.

The woman had travelled to Crete on holiday with her sister and a female friend from Britain, the police spokesman said.

Britons make up about a fifth of the 15 million tourists that visit Greece every year, attracted by its hot summer weather and sandy coastline.