Get your news delivered straight to you - sign up to the Morning Mail newsletter for FREE to be first with the day's biggest stories See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy JAMES FIELDING, SENIOR REPORTER Published: 12:57 BST, 21 May 2026 | Updated: 12:59 BST, 21 May 2026
A teenage girl bundled into a van at knifepoint and held for seven hours was 'unhurt' but 'traumatised' by her ordeal.The 15-year-old was snatched from a leafy street in an upmarket part of Cheshire where homes sell for upwards of £1million on Monday evening.She was reported missing within two hours and was eventually found in a hotel car park in Knutsford, Cheshire, in the early hours of Tuesday.A police source told the Daily Mail: 'Specialist officers are caring for her now. She wasn't physically hurt but it was a terrifying experience for her.'She's obviously traumatised by it,' they added.Detectives spoke to residents on the tree-lined street in Bowdon, Altrincham on Wednesday to try and find CCTV of the kidnapping.However most of the houses are set back from the road.One homeowner said: 'Police in plain clothes with badges around their necks came knocking. They were asking for CCTV footage but most people don't cover the road. The victim was forced into a vehicle on Bradgate Road (pictured) in Bowdon, a village in Altrincham'It's really scary that a girl was taken here. She must have been terrified.'Dog walker Mike Owen, 54, said: 'It's a real shock that it's happened here.'But you get a lot of vans driving up and down the street working on some of the big houses round here.'And people also walk their dogs a lot round here as there are parks and woods.'I thought it sounded like a kidnapping for ransom when I first heard about it.' The area from which the girl was snatched is a highly sought after suburb on the edge of Manchester which has been a home to footballers such as Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire. The attempted kidnapping took place on Bradgate Road, just minutes away from the salubrious Dunham Country ClubPolice confirmed on Tuesday that they had arrested a 56-year-old man who, at that time, remained in custody for further questioning. The man arrested was a white male, Greater Manchester Police said. It is understood the incident is being treated as random and that the teenager was not known to the suspect.
