Child freed; kidnapper wounded

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 11

Child freed; kidnapper wounded

NZPA-Reuter Estepona, Spain Police freed little Melodie Nakachian in a lightning dawn raid yesterday, wounding one of her kidnappers in a gunbattle, Spain’s police chief said. The five-year-old girl, snatched 12 days ago on her way to school, was unhurt and was reunited with her parents, Jose Maria Rodriguez Colorado, director general of police, told State radio. The kidnappers, whom he described as hardened criminals with a record in Spain and France, had threatened to starve and kill the child.

They had told' her father, Raymond Nakachian, to pay $4 million by 8 a.m. today New Zealand time.

Witnesses saw the Lebanese millionaire tightly holding his daughter as they drove in a police motorcade to their luxurious home in this Costa del Sol resort. Mr Rodriguez Colorado

said reports of the raid were still confused. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said an elite police squad of the Special Operations Groups stormed a fiat at San Roque, near Gibraltar, about 60km from where Melodie was kidnapped. He said several people appeared to have been detained. Melodie had moved Spain when, on a tape delivered by the kidnappers, she tearfully pleaded with her father to pay the ransom. The spokesman said she was weak but well when freed and was briefly taken to hospital

for a quick medical check. Witnesses reported scenes of jubilation at Melodie’s home.

“We are going to wait all night,” her mother, the Korean-born pop opera singer, Kimera, had told reporters on Thursday evening, hinting at an imminent development