Commandos storm cult compound on French island to free boy

Sixteen members of a religious cult – including a leading fugitive – were in custody today on an Indian Ocean island after French commandos stormed their compound and rescued a boy they had allegedly kidnapped.

Among those arrested was the believed head of the group, Julien Verbard, a 25-year-old who was convicted in absentia of raping two boys but had evaded police on the French island of La Reunion for three years.

Police say the abductors seized 12-year-old Alexandre Thelahine from his parents’ residence in Saint-Denis de la Reunion on Friday, escaping in a car they abandoned afterward before switching to another vehicle.

The child was kept in a house rented by the cult, called Mary’s Painful and Immaculate Heart, in the southern part of La Reunion, a popular vacation destination for tourists from the French mainland.

Yesterday, agents from the elite GIGN police force stormed the compound near the Piton-de-la-Fournaise volcano.

Four hours later, police said they had rescued the boy and arrested the cult members “without incident.”

Prosecutor Dominique Audureau lamented that it had taken too long to catch Verbard.

Police detective Francois Perrault said he enjoyed the support of “an almost paramilitary-like organisation.”