Man locks daughter, has 6 kids with her

Vienna, April 27: Austrian police on Sunday arrested a 73-year-old man suspected of locking up his daughter in a basement for more than 20 years and making her bear up to six children.

The man has not spoken since he was detained at Amstetten in Lower Austria state, according to investigators quoted by the APA domestic news agency.

Mr Franz Polzer, police chief for Lower Austria state, told a press conference the woman may have had as many as six children by her father.

ORF public television named the daughter as Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42.

It said she had four children during the 24 years she was sequestered near Amstetten.

Police indicated that DNA samples would be taken as part of their investigation.

The case was discovered after a 19-year-old daughter of the sequestered woman was taken to hospital in June in serious condition. Doctors had to contact the mother to find out what infection the daughter had.

Several spectacular cases of captivity have emerged in Austria in recent years, notably that of Natascha Kampusch, who was locked up by a man in the basement of a house in a Vienna suburb for eight years before she escaped.

Kampusch was 10 when Wolfgang Priklopil abducted her on her way to school in 1998.

The 44-year-old kidnapper killed himself just hours after she fled by throwing himself under a train. (AFP)