Kidnapped schoolgirl 'kept as sex slave in a cellar for eight years'

Kidnapped schoolgirl 'kept as sex slave in a cellar for eight years'
23:45pm 23rd August 2006

Austrian police are hunting a man they suspect of having kidnapped a young Austrian girl and held her as a sex slave in a cellar for eight years.

Natascha Kampusch, now 18, vanished on March 2 1998 while walking to school in Vienna, Austria.

When police stopped a black BMW in a routine road check in Vienna yesterday they were astonished to see a teenage girl leap out and the car roar off. She was just 10 years old when she disappeared without trace.

Last night Vienna police spokesman Erich Zwettler said police had chased the five series BMW across the city but had later lost it. He said it was later found abandoned in a Vienna wood, and the number plate had been traced back to a house in Vienna which had also been abandoned.

The house contained a cellar where it is believed she had been held for most of her captivity.

Border control points were placed on alert for the man, described as 44 years old and from Lower Austria, and a police photo of him was also released.

But astonishingly they would not release his name, claiming data protection laws prevented them from doing so.

Zwettler said: "More than 100 officers have been called in and we are searching every avenue of inquiry to trace this man. We do not believe he will be be able to leave Austria without being spotted."

The teenager told police she had occasionally been allowed out of the cellar and had been receiving schooling from her captor.

She had been allowed only occasional access to a radio and television. Police refused to confirm Austrian media reports attributed to police sources that she had been sexually abused throughout her captivity.

Police said the teenager was very pale after so much time spent in the cellar.

At the time of her disappearance hundreds of police helped in the search for Natasha, who vanished without trace. Her parents have been alerted and a DNA test has been organised to confirm the teenager's identity.

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