Reuters, Lebanese police
have detained an Australian film crew and accused them of involvement in
a kidnapping of two children from their Lebanese father on behalf of
their Australian mother.

“Four
Australian nationals have been stopped on suspicion of kidnapping the
two children,” the Lebanese internal security services said on their
Twitter account.

CCTV footage
broadcast on Lebanese TV appeared to show the two children, who the
father said were aged five and three, being bundled into a car by
several attackers on a busy street in southern Beirut. The children’s
grandmother told media she had been hit on the head with a pistol during
the abduction.

The father, Ali
Zeid al-Amin, said by phone that he was scared for the children’s safety
but that they were with their mother. “It’s their mum that kidnapped
them, and that’s what we know. She contacted me and told me she has the
kids,” he said.

A Lebanese security source said the mother and two children had been found and were with the authorities.

The four-member
crew was making a film about the mother’s efforts to recover her
children for the Australian current affairs show “60 Minutes”. The
incident took place in the Hadath area of southern Beirut at 7.10am on
Wednesday.

Lebanon, unlike
Australia, is not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil
Aspects of International Child Abduction, which allows for children
normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a relative.

Lebanese Interior
Minister Nohad Machnouk was quoted on Thursday as saying the crew were
“involved in abducting the two children and detained in respect of their
participation in the kidnapping operation”.

Australia’s
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been in contact with
Channel 9 over reports of the crew’s detention, a spokesman of Foreign
Minister Julie Bishop said.

“A crew has been
detained. Our people are working with the authorities to have them
released as soon as possible,” a spokesman for Channel 9 said.

“We
are urgently seeking to confirm the crew’s whereabouts and welfare, and
have offered all appropriate consular assistance,” he said.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and John Davison; Additional reporting by
Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Angus McDowall in Beirut; Editing by
Raissa Kasolowsky)