Austrian police seek "House Of Horrors" answers

By Sylvia Westall

AMSTETTEN, Austria (Reuters) - Austrian police sought answers on Tuesday on how a father managed to imprison a daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and have seven children by her without authorities and neighbours knowing.

Josef Fritzl, a 73-year-old electrical engineer, had confessed to holding his daughter captive in what Austrian media have branded "The House Of Horrors", police said on Monday.

The daughter and three of the children lived in the 60 square metre (645 sq ft) cellar in Fritzl's nondescript two-storey home that officials said was no more than 1.7 metres (5 ft 6 in) high and contained a padded cell.

A leading question was how what went on in the house, situated in a busy street with shops in the small industrial town of Amstetten, passed unnoticed for so long, particularly as Fritzl built extensions to the cellar.

Commentator Petra Stuiber wrote in Austria's Der Standard newspaper that what she termed a rich self-satisfied society needed to examine why it was allowed to occur.

"How is it possible that nobody heard or saw anything? How can it be that nobody asked questions?" said Stuiber.

"This is an appalling crime. I know of no comparable case in Austria," said Franz Prucher, head of security in Lower Austria.

Photographs of the house showed a narrow passageway leading into other rooms that included a cooking area, with children's drawings on the walls, a sleeping area and a small bathroom with a shower.