Police in the US have arrested the mother of a seven-year-old girl whose body was found decaying in the wardrobe of a vacant apartment.

Police in Georgia charged Alondra Hobbs, 27, with felony murder and cruelty in the second degree, DeKalb County police said on Facebook.

They identified her daughter as Alivia Hobbs-Jordan.

An officer discovered the girl’s body on Sunday at an apartment complex outside the city of Atlanta after someone called to report a dead child in the wardrobe, according to a police report.

A neighbour told the officer the tenant had moved out and she had not seen her for a couple of months.

The officer said he saw what appeared to be a full head of hair and a decaying arm and leg in the wardrobe.

Police have not said how the girl died.

Another officer found a piece of mail with the name Alondra Hobbs on it, according to the report.

Spokesperson Officer Elise Wells said she was at a hospital on Friday. She said she will be taken to jail when she is released.

Hobbs was charged on Thursday, according to police.

‘She looked like a real mummy’

A man who told local media he was the one who made the discovery said he came across the scene around 4pm after seeing the door to the apartment “wide open”.

He told the TV station he noticed an awful “stench” as he got closer.

Once inside all the lights were off, but the furniture was still in place and objects were strewn about as if someone had “left in a hurry”.

He said he noticed another open door, then saw a human arm hanging out of the wardrobe.

“She looked like a real mummy,” he said.

“You could tell it was a young girl by what she had on and by her hair.”