Incest and Imprisonment: Daugher Freed after Years of Captivity

The alleged crimes came to light after the teenager, named as Kerstin F, was dropped off at the Amstetten hospital last weekend.

The woman, identified as 42-year-old Elisabeth F., has been missing since 1984 when she was 18 years old, police said at a news conference.

The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a 19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized after falling unconscious, according to police.

She was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her grandfather with a note from her biological mother requesting help.

But police said a DNA test later revealed her grandfather, Josef F., was also her father, according to ORF, Austria's state-run news agency.

That sparked a police investigation which revealed that Josef F. may have fathered at least six children with his daughter, forcing her and three of the surviving children to live in the cellar of his house, according to ORF's Peter Schmitzberger.

Acting on "a confidential tip," Amstetten police apprehended Josef F. and Elisabeth F. on Saturday near the hospital for questioning, according to a police statement. Once police assured the daughter that she would never have contact with her father again, "she was able to tell the whole story," Schmitzberger said.

Josef F. lived upstairs with his wife, Rosemarie F., who police said had no idea about her husband's other family living in the cellar.

The six children are three boys and three girls aged between five and 20.

Police spokesman Franz Polzer told reporters they had been taken to a safe location.

"They are all in psychological care in a secure institution in a clinic here in this area," he said.

"They are being cared for individually - those between 12 and 16 years of age who grew up with their grandparents, and two boys who, when they came out yesterday with their mother, saw the daylight for the first time in their lives."