Cops Confirm Girl's Miraculous Escape

Police said Friday that DNA tests prove that a young woman who turned up earlier this week is Natascha Kampusch, who was allegedly kidnapped as a child and kept by her abductor in a small underground room for eight years.

Details remained sketchy of Kampusch's disappearance and her discovery Wednesday in Strasshof, the small town outside Vienna where she says she was held by her abductor. While relatives had already identified Kampusch, police had been waiting for the results of DNA tests to remove any doubt.

Erich Zwettler, the head of Austria's federal police, told reporters that the woman escaped from her abductor in an unguarded moment while he stepped away from her to talk on his cell phone so that he could hear better while she was vacuuming his car. Police originally had said she had escaped when the small metal door of her underground cell was left open.

Kampusch, who was then 10 years old, vanished on her way to school on March 2, 1998. Wolfgang Priklopil, the man who allegedly abducted her, killed himself Wednesday, a few hours after she sought help at a neighbor's home, by throwing himself in front of a Vienna commuter train.

Expressing relief and incredulity that Kampusch was found alive, Interior Minister Liese Prokop told reporters: "We were only looking for a corpse.

"Nobody could imagine the present situation."

Law enforcement officials refused to directly confirm that Kampusch had been sexually abused. But Zwettler said: "I do not assume that the suspicion ... is false."

Photos released by police of the hiding place in his house where the young woman purportedly was kept showed a small, cluttered room with narrow concrete stairs leading down to it from an entrance so small it would have to be crawled through. Another photo showed a metal hatch that sealed the windowless, underground room.

Police on Thursday said there was a bed and a toilet in the cramped space. Images on TV showed a small television in the room, which also had a sink and was littered with piles of books. Police said the woman was occasionally allowed to watch videos.

Strasshof is a semi-rural community where tidy houses adorned with flower boxes are mostly set close together. Children play freely in the streets and doors are left open. Neighbors said they were shocked by the reports and had seen no signs of anything to raise suspicion.

Questioning of Kampusch, who is at a hotel in an undisclosed location, would be interrupted over the weekend to give her a rest, said police.

Natascha's sister told Austrian TV her mother almost had a breakdown when police notified her Wednesday afternoon of the discovery of the young woman. She said her mother always held onto the hope that Natascha would come back one day.

"She always said she was still alive," said the sister, identified as Sabina Sirny.

Nikolaus Koch, a lead investigator, said on Austrian television that the police had contact with the alleged kidnapper about three months after Natascha disappeared in 1998 but he had a "sturdy alibi" at the time.

At the time, another girl told police she had seen Natascha being dragged into a white van. Police interviewed hundreds of van owners and briefly interviewed Priklopil.

Police tracked down the van Thursday and were investigating if Priklopil had an accomplice, Austrian television reported.