They blindfolded the children and told them they were playing a game to 'drive away the devil', then vanished, leaving the boys, 4 and 5, alone in woods in Portugal with only spare clothes, fruit and water; the parents were later arrested 200 kilometers awayynet|Updated:A French couple abandoned their two young children, ages 4 and 5, in a wooded area in Portugal, leaving them with only spare clothes, two pieces of fruit and two bottles of water. The account later given by the children, involving blindfolds and a supposed “exorcism game” that ended with them completely alone, was even more disturbing.The case began earlier this month. The mother, 41, from the eastern French city of Colmar, disappeared with the children and took them on a journey through southern Europe. On the 11th of the month, the three of them and the children’s 55-year-old stepfather crossed from Spain into Portugal and were captured on surveillance cameras at a gas station. The footage showed the children playing in the car, apparently unaware of what would happen just days later.The area in Portugal where the two French children were found (Video: Reuters)After arriving in Portugal, the family drove another 500 kilometers (310 miles). The couple and the children stayed at a hotel in the town of Alcácer do Sal. On Tuesday at around 7 p.m., the children were found about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the hotel, wandering along a road between Alcácer do Sal and the town of Comporta, hundreds of kilometers from the place where they had grown up.The children were discovered by local residents Eugenia and Artur Quintas. “They were crying, calling for their father and were terrified,” Artur said. Britain’s Daily Mail reported that the children were bruised, covered in dirt and carrying no identification documents. The Quintas family took them home and alerted police, and the children were later taken to a hospital.After questioning the children and determining they had not been drugged, authorities learned they had come from France. 3 View gallery The two children after they were found (Photo: Daily Mail)3 View gallery (Photo: Daily Mail)The children said their parents told them they were about to play a game to “drive away the devil.” According to the children, the parents blindfolded them and led them into a wooded area, then told them they could remove the blindfolds only after finding a knife the couple had buried in the ground — a knife they were supposedly meant to use to cut off the blindfolds.The children dug in the dirt for several minutes before the older child removed both blindfolds. To their shock, they discovered they had been left completely alone. Still believing they were playing a game, the children wandered through the area for several hours, in temperatures that can reach 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) at this time of year in Portugal.3 View gallery Portuguese police officers (Photo: FILIPE AMORIM / AFP)The siblings later told local police that their parents had left them by the side of the road with little more than spare clothes, fruit and two bottles of water. “The older child told me that he and his brother got lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without them. When I saw how their backpacks were packed, I immediately understood they had been abandoned,” Artur Quintas said.The parents were eventually located at a café in the Portuguese city of Fátima, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Alcácer do Sal. They were arrested yesterday and are suspected of child abuse and abandonment, among other offenses. Authorities believe the stepfather suffers from a psychiatric disorder.The children’s grandmother was the one who reported them missing, saying they had been abducted by her daughter. Their biological father, who lives separately from his wife, also filed a kidnapping complaint. The prosecutor in Colmar, where the family is from, told Le Parisien: “Like everyone else, he does not understand either.”Experts fear the children could suffer long-term psychological damage as a result of the abandonment. Psychologist Mélanie Tavares told CNN Portugal: “There is the feeling of abandonment, of being lost, of being unprotected. It can cause major sleep difficulties, changes to normal routines including eating habits, irritability or even near-total withdrawal, as well as great difficulty accepting rules.”She said the fact that the parents presented the ordeal as a “game” could lead to distrust of parental figures. “These children will live in constant distress,” she said. “This is a trauma that will remain for life.”First published: 16:34, 05.22.26 Comments