Shannon Matthews found alive

Missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews was found alive on Friday, hidden in the base of a bed in a house in West Yorkshire, police said.

Detectives broke down the door of the house a mile from her family home in Dewsbury and brought her out with a 39-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of abduction.

Police said: "Shannon is currently in the care of West Yorkshire Police. Investigations are ongoing."

They later issued a statement saying the nine-year-old had been made the subject of an emergency police protection order.

"This means she will be in local authority care while we investigate the circumstances of her disappearance and events since, so she will not be going home tonight," a spokesman told Reuters.

She had gone missing on February 19 after going on a swimming trip, prompting one of the biggest investigations in the area since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry of the late 1970s.

Her father, Leon Rose, told Sky News that finding her was "like winning the lottery".

Neighbours said the girl appeared "quite calm" when she emerged from the house in Batley Carr.

"The first thing I heard was the police breaking the door down," neighbour Christopher Heaps told BBC News 24. "I went out to see what was going on because of the noise and I saw the policeman carrying the young girl in his arms.

"I saw the man being taken away and dragged down the steps and handcuffed and put into the van.

"The little girl was put into a car and taken away. She was very calm and she didn't look upset."

Police sealed off the area around the house where Matthews was found.

Relatives said police had driven the girl's mother Karen Matthews from the family home this afternoon.

Hundreds of police, dog handlers and mountain rescue teams had joined the search for the girl. Officers have spoken to more than 1,500 motorists.

Police leading the search had spoken of their grave concern for the girl and likened the investigation to a murder inquiry.

Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan said last month: "What concerns me greatly at this point is that Shannon as a vulnerable nine-year-old girl may have fallen into the wrong hands".

Karen Matthews made repeated emotional appeals for her daughter's safe return.

On Mother's Day, she said: "I have a special bond with Shannon and I feel sure that she is alive and will come home to her mum."