A child in the shadow of a fountain in Portugal. (symbol image)Image: AP
May 21, 2026, 8:33 p.mMay 21, 2026, 8:35 p.m
According to a report by state TV channel RTP, Portuguese police have taken into custody the mother and stepfather of the two French toddlers they allegedly abandoned. A passerby noticed the two on the terrace of a café in the well-known pilgrimage site of Fátima in central Portugal.
The man alerted the police. Officials from the National Guard of the Republic (GNR), which is responsible for rural areas, took the two Frenchmen, a 41-year-old and a 55-year-old, to the station. They are currently being interrogated there, RTP reported, citing a statement from the GNR. The Portuguese newspaper “Correio da Manha” also reported accordingly.
The two are “suspected of having committed crimes related to domestic violence as well as abandonment and neglect,” RTP quoted the National Guard as saying. The GNR confirmed that the arrest was in connection with the two small children who were found alone on a street in the municipality of Alcácer do Sal.
Children were found alone on a remote country road
The two brothers, aged three and five, were found crying and alone on a remote country road around 60 kilometers southeast of Lisbon on Tuesday evening. According to Portuguese media, they had only arrived a few days earlier with their mother and stepfather.
According to a report by CNN Portugal, the children, who lived with their father in France, are said to have been kidnapped by their mother. It was said that the biological father reported the boys missing in France. (sda/dpa)