The harrowing story of two young French brothers, aged 3 and 5, discovered wandering on a road linking Alcácer do Sal with Comporta, has been further explained today, as it is now horribly clear that they were abandoned by their parents.
According to SIC, they have described how they were blindfolded in a nearby forest and told they would be playing a game, to find a toy. But there was no game: their parents left the children, who had two little rucksacks with them.
When Alexandre Quintas passed the boys on the road, at around 7pm last night, and looked in his rear view mirror, he could see they were in distress – calling in his direction, and sobbing. He told SIC that he stopped, went back to see what the matter was – and realised very quickly what must have happened.
“I understood straight away that they had been abandoned, because of their rucksacks. When I looked at the way the rucksacks had been packed, I knew they had been abandoned,” he said.
The rucksacks contained “a change of clothes, a packet of biscuits, two items of fruit and a bottle of water.”
Quintas adds that the eldest child told him what had happened: “To trick the children, the parents blindfolded them and put them in the forest to play a game. They told the children to go and look for a toy…”
The brutal modern-day version of Hansel and Gretal will almost certainly be further explained, either tonight or tomorrow. SIC explains that police have already ‘identified the parents’, albeit there are no names, yet – and certainly no indication of a ‘happy family reunion’.
The children were taken initially to the local GNR station, with child protection services alerted.
UPDATE 8pm: SIC’s news bulletin this evening said that the ‘parents’ appear to have been the mother, and step-father. Neither have yet been located, but locals have confirmed seeing the couple with the children in the area the day before the boys were discovered on the EN 253, close to Monte Novo do Sul.
SIC’s report adds that the boys’ father, in France, is understood to have lodged a complaint against the mother for the alleged kidnap of the children.
With a judicial case opened – involving police, public prosecutors and child protection services – the boys are now under the protection of the French embassy in Portugal.
The big question, says SIC, is understanding how long they spent wandering on their own, before they were found.
Source material: SIC Notícias