A French woman and her partner were remanded to custody Saturday after being charged in Portugal with abandoning two young boys in a rural area.
The children, French brothers ages 3 and 5, are the woman’s sons.
They were found Tuesday along a road near Alcacer do Sal, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Lisbon, carrying backpacks with food, water and a change of clothes.
They did not have identification documents, Portuguese media reported. A passerby and his wife rescued the boys and took them to a police station.
The rescuers said the boys reported they had been blindfolded and led into a forest under the guise of playing a game, according to Portuguese media. The boys said they could not find their mother or her car when they removed the blindfolds.
