Police in Cyprus are on high alert after a four-year-old girl was snatched and taken from her mother by two men wearing hoods on Thursday morning in Nicosia.
Investigators say that the two or three men kidnapped the child as the mother was dropping her off at nursery and fled in a car at around 7.45am. The child’s parents are separated with the father said to be a Norwegian national and the mother Cypriot and living in Nicosia.
Police say Marie Eleni Grimsrud was kidnapped outside her nursery school in Nicosia on the morning of April 27
The girl has been named as Marie Eleni Grimsrud.
Police are on the lookout for a black Range Rover and are calling on members of the public to contact their nearest police station or call the citizen’s hotline on 1460 or Nicosia CID directly on 22 802331.
It is widely believed that this abduction is related to a previous kidnapping attempt in Cyprus last year of the same child. Both the parents are involved in a bitter custody dispute.
Last year, Norwegian mercenary Espen Lee and two other men were taken into custody at the Agios Dometios checkpoint after reports that they had come to the island to take the child from its Greek Cypriot mother.
“The child’s mother had secured an injunction from Cyprus to have the child returned to her from the father – who is Norwegian and whom she had separated from,” Police Spokesperson Andreas Angelides had told the Cyprus Weekly at the time.
“We had received information that the trio would be arriving in Cyprus to kidnap the child, and we have sufficient evidence to back up those claims.”
Lie’s lawyer denied his client’s involvement in the case but allegedly the suspect was carrying documents which proved he was searching for the little girl.
The men were eventually released due to lack of evidence.
Cyprus Weekly