Two children who were allegedly abducted from their Melbourne home have been found safe and well.
Victoria Police said the pair were located about 7.20pm in the suburb of Mitcham and would be medically assessed despite appearing safe and well.
Three men and a woman were arrested at the scene and taken into custody.
The discovery ends a desperate search for the two young children who were allegedly abducted from their Melbourne home during a daylight home invasion.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas from the Armed Crime Squad said it was a “fantastic result and we’re incredibly happy”.
“Their parents are also understandably immensely relieved,” he said, in a statement.
“As I said earlier today, any incident of this nature where children are taken from a property is concerning for police and it’s certainly concerning for the broader community as well.
“This was a significant operation conducted by Crime Command detectives, local police and specialist units in an effort to find the children and the stolen vehicle.
“The four in custody will be interviewed tonight and we’ll continue to work through to piece together exactly what has happened.”
Police earlier alleged an armed man entered the children’s Blackburn North home sometime between 8am and 8.30am on Monday, assaulted the 32-year-old mother and left her gagged and bound.
Police allege he then stole the family’s black 2014 Mercedes Benz sedan and fled the home with the children, aged three and five, who were missing for more than eight hours.
Officers found the mother in distress after being called to the property about 8.55am for a welfare check.
Inspector Dean Thomas said the mother had been hospitalised due to suffering injuries from the alleged attack.
The father of the children was at work at the time of the incident but was assisting police with their investigation.
Inspector Thomas said police believed it was an isolated incident.
It was believed the mother and the intruder interacted briefly during the incident.
The family is not known to police and moved into their Blackburn North home a year ago.
“Obviously any crime that involves the taking of children is treated very, very seriously,” he said, before the children were found.
“We have a number of police working on this at the moment. We have many people, many uniformed members in the area, we have a number of detectives working tirelessly on this to try and ascertain where these children are so that we can liberate them.
“They would be in great fear and would be wanting to see their mum and dad as soon as possible.”
CCTV shows a man leaving the property just after 8.45am, with the car last seen driving east along Springfield Road.
Courtesy: https://www.9news.com.au/national/polic
