Child snatched from Nottingham children´s home at gunpoint rescued by police in Madrid airport

AN Algerian man who snatched his two-year-old daughter from a UK children’s home at gunpoint has been arrested at Adolfo Suarez-Madrid Barajas airport.

National Police officers made the arrest after realising the man’s flight to Oman in Algeria had a scheduled stop at Madrid.

The child was in a children’s home in Nottingham when her father, who had lost custody of his daughter, came and took her by force. First he threatened carers with a gun then he bound and gagged them before fleeing and immediately catching a flight.

Spain’s National Police received an urgent communication from the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) asking for help in finding and arresting the man.

Realising that the man’s flight was awaiting take-off from Madrid, officers boarded the plane and made an arrest. His daughter was sitting next to him unharmed. She has now been taken in by Spanish social services and will be transferred back to the UK.

The Algerian man has been detained while UK police get an international arrest warrant.