Shannon Matthews found alive

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - 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.