Austrian police have released details of the cellar where a woman was allegedly held captive and sexually abused for 24 years by her father.
Harrowing details of the 42-year-old woman's ordeal emerged after she was rescued by police in the Austrian town of Amstetten on Saturday night following a tip-off.
Her 73-year-old father was arrested and taken into custody. It is alleged that he repeatedly raped her and fathered at least six children.
Police said investigators had found the area in the family home where the woman was imprisoned along with three of her children.
In an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF, Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said the area had "several" rooms, an uneven floor and a "very narrow" hallway.
"Everything is very, very narrow and the victim herself, the mother of these six or seven children, told us that this was being continually enlarged over the years," Mr Polzer said.
The area also contained sanitary facilities and "small hot plates" for cooking.
ORF reported that the rooms were at most 5ft 6ins high.
Police found the rooms after Josef gave them a code to unlock a hidden door, Mr Polzer said.
According to the police statement, the woman - identified as Elisabeth F - said that she and her children got
food and clothing from her father only and that her mother Rosemarie, who also lived at the house, had not been involved.
Police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday night close to the Amstetten hospital after receiving a tip-off.
According to the police statement, Josef had freed Elisabeth and two of her three children from the cellar, and had told his wife that she had come back to them.
Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter Kerstin was found unconscious on April 19 in the grandparents' apartment building, along with a note from Elisabeth asking that she be taken care of. The girl was taken to hospital where she is in a "very serious" condition.
Police said Elisabeth appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning yesterday. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be cared for.
Police said three of the children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents.
According to the statement, the grandparents had told authorities they had found those children outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997, each time with a note from the mother.
In the first letter, Elisabeth had apparently said she already had a daughter and son. In another letter, she said she gave birth to another son in December 2002, according to the statement.
The other three children were apparently held captive in the cellar with their mother, Mr Polzer said.
"Elisabeth F taught them how to speak," Mr Polzer said.
Gerhard Sedlacek, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in St Poelten, said the surviving children - three boys and three girls - are aged between five and 20.
DNA tests are expected to determine today whether Josef is the father of the children.