Two children aged 3 and 5 were kidnapped in Fourmies (North) early in the afternoon. They were found “safe and sound” in Beuvrages, near Valenciennes, the gendarmerie announced this evening. The father, suspected of being the perpetrator of the kidnapping, was arrested.
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The kidnapping alert is lifted. “THE children were found, the father arrested”, confirmed this Monday evening Mickaël Hiraux, mayor of Fourmies, a town in the North where the kidnapping had taken place 9 hours earlier. Mohammed and Nassim, aged 5 and 3, were found “safe and sound” in Beuvrages, near Valenciennes in the early evening, according to the gendarmerie.
Both were “in the street” near their father’s home, according to a source cited by AFP.
The two boys were kidnapped in Fourmies (North) around 1:10 p.m. They were with their mother on the public highway on rue Jean Jaurès when they were kidnapped.
-Their father, suspected of being the perpetrator of the kidnapping, was arrested shortly before 10 p.m. by the gendarmes near his home in Beuvrages.
According to AFP, the 38-year-old man had just been released from prison and was prohibited from being in the presence of his ex-partner who has a telephone “grave danger”, a protection system for people threatened by their former spouse.
He allegedly fled in a light gray AUDI A3 vehicle.
A major system had been put in place to try to find the two children: 12 gendarmerie patrols as well as 10 gendarmes from the Lille research section.
The Police and Customs Cooperation Center (CCPD) in Tournai, Belgium, was also on alert, due to the risk of the wanted vehicle crossing the border.
With AFP
