Two young brothers from France have been abandoned by their parents in a wooded area in Portugal, after being taken there blindfolded. Barthélémy, aged five, and Zacharie, aged three, were discovered wandering down a rural road between the towns of Alcácer do Sal and Comporta on Tuesday evening at around 7pm.
Eugénia and Artur Quintas, a local couple, found the boys with nothing more than a change of clothes, two pieces of fruit, and two bottles of water. Artur Quintas recounted: 'They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father.' He added that both boys were covered in dirt, and one had injured his knee. Neither child carried any identifying documents.
The Quintases stayed with the young children and contacted the police, who promptly arrived and transported them to Setúbal Hospital for a comprehensive health evaluation. Through questioning, authorities learned that the boys had come from France. The children told police that their mother had told them they were going to play a game. She blindfolded them, took them to a wooded area, and then left them there. When they removed their blindfolds, the boys realized they had been abandoned.
Artur Quintas explained to local media: 'The oldest one told me that he and his brother had gotten lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them.' He continued: 'I realized right away that they had been abandoned by the backpacks. When I saw the way the backpacks were packed, I knew they had been abandoned.'
The boys were placed into foster care after the French embassy in Portugal was contacted for information, leading to the identification of their parents. Authorities discovered that the family had no blood relatives in Portugal and that the parents and boys had been missing for 15 days after fleeing France. There is also a possibility that the parents abandoned another child, aged 16.
