Authorities in northwest Spain have rescued three siblings who were allegedly kept in strict isolation by their parents for over three years, continuing extreme lockdown conditions long after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, New Post reported on Friday.
The siblings, 8-year-old twins and a 10-year-old, were removed from their home in the Fitora-Toleo area of Oviedo earlier this week.
According to investigators, the children had been confined indoors, lockdown since 2021 and were only allowed to leave while wearing face masks.
Upon being rescued, they reportedly appeared stunned by their surroundings and were seen reacting in amazement to basic elements of the outside world, such as grass and snails.
As soon as we got them out, all three children began to breathe deeply, as if they had never been outside before,” an investigator said.
Local media reports describe the children as being in poor physical condition, though not malnourished. Authorities said they had been fed but were found dirty and socially isolated, having had no contact with the outside world or access to school for years.
Their parents—a 48-year-old woman with dual German-American citizenship and a 53-year-old German man—have been arrested and charged with child abandonment and domestic abuse.
Investigators suggest the couple was suffering from what has been referred to as “COVID syndrome,” a psychological condition involving extreme and prolonged fear of infection.
“The children were in terrible shape. It was absolutely outrageous,” an investigator told El Mundo.
“Not malnourished, because they were fed. But they were also dirty … [and] completely cut off from reality, and not just because they didn’t go to school.”
“When we took them out of the house, into the garden, where they wouldn’t even go outside, they saw a snail and went crazy, freaked out.”
