Father caught with three missing kids on train in Hungary

Three children kidnapped from Enschede by their father on May 19th, have been found alive and well, the police said in a statement on Saturday. They were found with their father on a train in Hungary on May 30th. The father was arrested and the three kids returned to the Netherlands on Saturday.

The Dutch police launched an investigation immediately after the kids were reported missing on May 19th. An European arrest warrant was issued for the father, a Syrian man. Photos of the children were spread on social media and on television in the Netherlands and abroad and border posts were informed to keep an eye out for them.

The Hungarian police recognized the man on a train on the border between Hungary and Romania on Tuesday, May 30th. He was arrested based on the European arrest warrant. The children were housed in a safe place in Hungary. Two Dutch detectives and a volunteer from Dutch refugee agency Vluchtelingenwerk traveled to Hungary to pick up the children - age 5, 4 and 2 years - and bring them back to the Netherlands.

The Dutch authorities also started the process of getting the father extradited to the Netherlands.