Portugal police detain French woman suspected of abandoning two children

Portugal's National Guard (GNR) said on Thursday it had detained a French woman suspected of abandoning her two young children, who were found earlier

this week walking alone along a road in a small Portuguese town.



French authorities had issued a Europe-wide request to help find the woman and children, aged 4 and 5, after their father reported them missing from their home in the town of Colmar, eastern France.



Portugal's Judicial Police (PJ) said in a statement earlier on Thursday that the children were discovered on Tuesday along a road in the town of Alcacer do Sal,in the Alentejo region, apparently lost after being abandoned by their mother, who they did not identify.



GNR, a gendarmerie-style police force, said in a statement it had detained the 41-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man in the town of Fatima, "both suspected of abandoning the two children found alone".