Two Dutch children who were kidnapped by their mother in 2014, and whose whereabouts had been unknown since then, have been located by police in Austria.

Miriam A, from Wijnandsrade in Limburg and mother of then 11-year-old Floor and seven-year-old Mees, had been the subject of a European search and arrest warrant since 2016.

The case reportedly broke because the mother had been hospitalised in Innsbrück. This led to social services in both in Austria and the Netherlands being notified, the children’s father Xander Werres told local Limburg broadcaster ZO-NWS.

At the time of the kidnap, both children had been placed under the guardianship of the Limburg youth services, the broadcaster said.

‘I was told by the cold case team that my children had been found. (..) I had given up on them. It’s unbelievable and they are alive! I have have to think about what happens next,’ Werres said.

Around 200 children are taken out of the Netherlands illegally by a parent every year. In most cases, the perpetrator is the mother, according to figures from the child kidnapping monitoring centre.