UPDATE 1-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". The woman was being investigated ⁠in the ⁠judicial court of Grandola for the crimes of exposure to danger and of abandonment, the PJ ‌said.

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