Austrian children 'never saw sunlight'

Austrian authorities say the case of the man who allegedly imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered at least six children with her is one of the nation's worst-ever crimes.

They say three of the children "never saw sunlight" until they were freed over the weekend.

Police in the town of Amstetten, west of Vienna, say the suspect, 73-year-old Josef Fritzl, has confessed, but that he had previously "managed to deceive everyone".

He allegedly kept them prisoner in his cellar, and police official Franz Polzer says he told investigators that he tossed the body of one of the children in an incinerator after the child died.

Reporters were told today that the man's daughter and her children have been placed in psychiatric care.

The 42-year-old, Elisabeth Fritzl, had been missing since August 29 1984. She was found by police in the town of Amstetten on Saturday, after police received a tip-off.

"We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime," said interior minister Guenther Platter.

Austrians - still scandalised by a 2006 case involving a young woman who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna - expressed disbelief that something similar could happen.

Natascha Kampusch, then 10 years old, was snatched from another small town in Austria, Strasshof, in 1998, and kept imprisoned for eight years.

Residents of the middle-class district said nothing in their contacts with the family suggested what allegedly was happening in the basement.

The suspect "was friendly - that's why this is so unbelievable", said Franz Redl, 56, who owns a shop across the street. "I'm sure the authorities did all they could. He planned everything so perfectly."

In a chronology of events outlined in their statement, police said that Miss Fritzl told them her father began abusing her when she was 11.

Police said she alleged that, some years later, on August 28, 1984, he sedated her, handcuffed her and locked her in a room in the cellar in Amstetten.

Police said a letter written by Miss Fritzl had apparently surfaced a month after her disappearance, asking her parents not to search for her.

Police said Miss Fritzl alleged that, during the 24 years that followed, she was continually abused by her father and gave birth to six children.

"Elisabeth Fritzl taught them how to speak," Mr Polzer said.

In 1996, she gave birth to twins, police quoted Miss Fritzl as saying. But one died several days later because it was not properly cared for, according to police, who said they are investigating.

Mr Fritzl apparently removed the body from the cellar and burned it, the police statement said. It was not immediately clear if the twin who allegedly died was included in the police total of six children.

Police said three of Miss Fritzl's children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents in an apartment in the house.

According to the police statement, Josef Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, had told authorities they had found those children outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997.