A nine-year-old British girl who was feared dead after missing for 24 days was found by police alive and well on Friday -- hidden in the base of a bed with her suspected abductor lying next to her.
Police stormed an apartment near Dewsbury in Yorkshire during a routine inquiry after neighbors reported they had heard a child's footsteps in the upstairs rooms. The apartment was less than a kilometer away from her own home.
Officers did not stop to ring or knock, but battered in the blue-painted door of the building with a ram and ran upstairs, forcing their way into a bedroom where Shannon Matthews was hidden in the storage drawer of a bed.
PHOTO: AP
Police officers found Shannon Matthews covered with a blanket, with a man lying next to her, the BBC reported.
A 39-year-old man who was in the apartment has been arrested on suspicion of abduction.
Matthews was in protective custody yesterday.
She had gone missing on Feb. 19 after a school swimming trip, prompting one of the biggest investigations in West Yorkshire since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry of the late 1970s.
Shannon's 32-year-old mother Karen and 22-year-old stepfather Craig Meehan were taken from their home on Friday after being told their daughter was safe. They first heard that she was found alive by text message from a family friend.
Shannon's father, Leon Rose, said he was thrilled that Shannon had been found alive. He told Sky News that finding her was "like winning the lottery."
Detectives are now trying to find out what happened to Matthews between her disappearance from the gates of her school and her dramatic rescue four weeks later. They said they will begin to talk to Matthews, who is the subject of an emergency police protection order, following medical checks.
"The interviews may be a long process but throughout this enquiry our main focus has been and continues to be Shannon's welfare," police said in a statement.
Bystanders said Matthews appeared "quite calm" when she was brought out of the apartment.
On Friday, experts said Shannon's safe return after such a length of time was "highly unusual."
"Quite honestly it is strange for a nine-year-old to be found alive after a month when a known factor is not involved," said Davinia Darch of the Police National Missing Persons Bureau.
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