Austrian police to resume questioning kidnap victim

Austrian investigators were today due to resume questioning of the kidnap victim who escaped a week ago after being held captive for more than eight years by a man who committed suicide hours after she slipped to safety.

The questioning, to be held in a secret location, was to focus on what happened on March 2, 1998 – the day Natascha Kampusch was snatched off a Vienna street on her way to school, Gerhard Lang of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau told the Austria Press Agency in Vienna.

Lang stressed yesterday that police would do their utmost to respect Kampusch’s privacy and indicated that what the 18-year-old told them would not be relayed to the media in great detail – if at all.

“Everything will happen the way she wants it to,” said police spokesman Armin Halm.

Yesterday, police made a precautionary floor-to-floor search of the house where the girl was held to make sure it contained no other secret windowless rooms – or victims.

The girl’s abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, killed himself hours after the girl escaped by throwing himself under a train.