By Jan-Uwe Ronneburger

Oviedo (Spain) - Spanish police have freed three children of a German couple who had been locked up at home since the coronavirus pandemic.

The parents were arrested in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo and the children were placed in a home, a police spokeswoman confirmed on request. A police officer spoke of a "horror house", as the newspaper "La Nueva España" reported.

Spanish media reported that the house on the outskirts of the city was completely littered. A neighbor had noticed that children lived there who never went to school. She alerted the police. The authorities initially gave no details as to why the parents had isolated their children from the outside world.

The children, twins (8) and a boy (10), had not been out of the house since December 2021, Spanish media reported, citing the authorities. They were not even allowed into the garden of the house.

They had to sleep in cribs in the house. They were cut off from any contact with the outside world. They also never went to school. The parents forced them to wear diapers and face masks.

When the children were first led out of the house by officers, one of them touched the grass of the lawn with his hands in astonishment. "As soon as we got them out, all three began to breathe deeply, as if they had never been out in the fresh air before," an investigator told the newspaper "La Nueva España".

When police officers entered the house on Monday during the massive power outage in Spain, the parents first demanded that the officers also put on masks. The police confirmed that the mother had US citizenship as well as German citizenship.

It was initially unknown where in Germany the family came from.