French police have arrested a man who allegedly abducted his former partner and their two young children in Germany and drove them to northern France, police and prosecutors said on Tuesday.

According to a statement by the police and public prosecutor in Kiel, the 35-year-old Syrian allegedly dragged the woman and the children aged two and three forcefully into his car last Thursday.

It said an investigation was launched immediately, after the woman’s parents contacted the police, reporting their daughter and grandchildren as missing.

French police finally found the man and his alleged victims in a refugee shelter in Sangatte, near the French port city of Calais, on Monday afternoon, the statement said.

Officials brought the mother and children to safety and police arrested the man, who was remanded in custody.

The district court in Kiel had issued an international arrest warrant for the man on charges of hostage-taking.

According to previous investigations, it was a dispute over the man’s access to the children, with the German Bild newspaper reporting that investigators assumed the man wanted to flee with the woman and children to the United Kingdom.

The statement said the man also demanded the handover of another son that he and the woman had together.

It said the man’s brother had also been detained on Monday evening for his alleged involvement in the crime and is to appear in court. Further details were initially unavailable.

The public prosecutor’s office in Kiel confirmed that it had applied for the suspect to be extradited.

(dpa/NAN)