Two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of abducting a three-year-old girl from a Primark store in Newcastle.
The toddler went missing from the busy shop in the city centre shortly before 5pm on Wednesday.
A city-wide police investigation was launched immediately, including a travel alert on buses and trains and a warning to nearby stores as detectives scoured CCTV.
The child was found just over an hour later by a police community support officer in Gosforth, three miles north of the city centre.
Two girls, aged 13 and 14, were being questioned by police on Thursday morning after being arrested on suspicion of child abduction.
Ch Insp Dave Gould said: “Thankfully the child was quickly located by officers and then reunited with her mother. This has been an incredibly distressing time for the girl’s family and specialist officers are working with and supporting the family.
“We mobilised all available local police resources to make sure the girl was found as quickly as possible and also included assistance from the public, and many of our partner agencies including Newcastle local authority and university as well as staff from retail premises, bus companies, train station and metro system. I would like to thank all of those involved for their help in finding this little girl and helping reunite her with her mother.
“Our inquiries will now continue to establish the circumstances of what happened and speaking to the two teenage girls in custody regarding the incident”
