MELBOURNE: A four-year-old girl missing for 18 days in a remote part of Western Australia has been found alive and well in a locked house, BBC has reported.

Cleo Smith disappeared from her family’s tent at a campsite near the town of Carnarvon on 16 October, triggering a massive search effort, the report said.

Police smashed their way into a locked house in Carnarvon, where they found her.

A 36-year-old man from Carnarvon is in custody and being questioned by police.

“A police team broke their way into a locked house… They found little Cleo in one of the rooms,” Western Australian Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said.

“One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her ‘What’s your name?’ She said ‘My name is Cleo’,” he added.

The four-year-old has now been reunited with her parents, who had made desperate and emotional pleas for Cleo’s return since she vanished.

“Our family is whole again,” Ellie Smith, Cleo’s mother wrote on Instagram.

Police said the man in custody had no connection to the Smith family.

“We’ll have more to say on the rescue of Cleo as the day unfolds,” Deputy Commissioner Blanch said.

(BBC)