Two young children have been found alone and crying on a remote country road in Portugal, with authorities suspecting they may have been abandoned by their parents, local media reported on Wednesday.
A man found the boys near the village of Monte Novo do Sul, about 60 kilometres south-east of Lisbon, and took them to police, the newspaper Correio da Manhã, broadcaster SIC Notícias and other local media reported, citing authorities.
No missing persons report had been filed.
The boys told officers they were French and aged five and three, according to the reports. They were not carrying any identity documents.
They told officers from Portugal's National Republican Guard (GNR) that their mother and stepfather had left them alone in the forest with their eyes covered. When they removed the blindfolds, their parents were gone, the reports said.
The man who found the children on Tuesday evening while driving said he had suddenly seen them in his rearview mirror, according to SIC Notícias. He said the older child told him the parents had left them under the pretence of a game.
"The parents told them they should look for a toy in the forest," the man said.
"When I looked in their backpacks, I immediately realized they had been abandoned," he said. "There were complete changes of clothes, biscuits, fruit and a bottle of water."
The children are now being cared for by the child protection authority CPCJ. Police are searching for the parents.
