Brothers, 5 and 3, found after being ‘blindfolded and abandoned’ in woods | News World

Two young boys were found wandering alone down a country path hundreds of miles away from home.

Barthélémy, 5, and Zacharie, 3, were crying for their father when police found them between the popular seaside resort towns of Alcácer do Sal and Comporta in Portugal.

Artur Quintas was driving along the remote track with his wife when he spotted the boy’s blonde hair at just before sunset on Tuesday.

He told Portuguese outlet Correio da Manhã: ‘They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father.

‘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.’ 

Their hands were covered in dirt, and one of them had a knee injury.

He added: ‘I saw that they were each carrying a backpack. I immediately realised they had been abandoned.’

Their backpacks had nothing more than a change of clothes, an apple, an orange and two bottles of water.

The French brothers told authorities their mother, 41-year-old Marine, and stepfather Marc had driven them to remote woodland and told them they were going to play a game to ‘drive away the devil.’

Blindfolding the boys, they told them that they could only remove their eye covers once they had found a knife they had buried in the soil.

The elder brother Barthélémy dug around the dirt trying to follow their instructions before finally removing both their blindfolds, only to realise they had been left in the woods.

Still believing they were part of a game, the children wandered the desolate area, which can reach 30C in Spring, before finally being found by the driver.

It is thought the siblings were living in Colmar, eastern France, before their mother vanished with them around two weeks ago driving them to Portugal.

Marine’s mother reported their disappearance to police, telling the officers they had been abducted by their mother. 

It has since emerged that their birth father, who is separated from Marine, had also filed a child abduction report to French police. Colmar prosecutor Jean Richert told Le Parisien: ‘He’s like everyone else, he doesn’t understand.’

French police have said they are already aware of stepfather Marc, who is believed to suffer from a psychiatric disorder. 

Portuguese police have not formally confirmed that the children were kidnapped and abandoned, with a spokesperson saying: ‘All possibilities are being considered.’

MORE: Teenagers who raped two young girls spared jail ‘to avoid criminalising them’

MORE: Kids to be offered free bus travel in August — everything parents need to know

MORE: Sikh murder suspect ‘stabbed student Henry Nowak after he was called p*** and had turban pulled off’