VIENNA: An Austrian girl held prisoner in a cellar for eight years was reunited with her parents yesterday after making a dramatic dash for freedom.
Police searching for a man suspected of kidnapping Natascha Kampusch and holding her prisoner said the alleged kidnapper had committed suicide yesterday by jumping in front of a train.
Police said relatives identified the woman as Ms Kampusch, who vanished in 1998 at age 10 while walking to school in Vienna.
Herwig Haidinger, head of the Federal Crime Office, said the woman was undergoing DNA tests to confirm her identity but said investigators were almost certain she was Ms Kampusch.
The woman, very pale but in apparently good physical health, reportedly escaped after leaping out of a black BMW when it was stopped in a routine police road check.
The BMW was caught in traffic in the Deutsch Wagram suburb of the Austrian capital. The delay had been caused by a police routine roadside check a short distance ahead.
Austrian television said that other motorists had raised the alarm when a girl ran from the car and was then seen apparently in some distress in the garden of a house where officers who came to investigate had found her.
Erich Zwettler, a spokesman for Vienna police, last night confirmed that the teenage girl was "with 98 per cent certainty" Ms Kampusch, although a DNA test was being carried out.
He said the tests had included an "age progression test" that had been used on pictures of the girl to show how she would look today. He added she also had been asked questions that only the real Natascha would be able to answer.
Her father, Ludwig Koch, said he was "overcome" after being told that his daughter had been found, The Times reported.
"I can't believe that after eight desperate years my daughter is finally coming home," he said. "If it is true it will be the greatest thing that could possibly be."
Mr Koch and Ms Kampusch's mother were at the secure location where the teenager was being kept.
The girl reportedly told police her captor would occasionally allow her to take walks with him through his neighbourhood and that she had access to radio, television, newspapers and books. She had also said the garage was equipped with a bed and wardrobe.
Mr Zwettler, when asked why the young woman had not fled while on any of her outings, said she seemed to have had "Stockholm Syndrome", a psychological condition in which long-held captives begin to identify with their captors.
Mr Zwettler said that police had chased the BMW across the city but had lost it. It was later found abandoned in a Vienna wood. The number plate had been traced to a house in the Donaustadt area of Vienna, which was found abandoned after a police raid.
Border control points had also been placed on alert for the 44-year-old man - known only as Wolfgang P. - who is from Lower Austria.
It was also revealed that the suspect was someone "who was known to police".
Reuters
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