Lebanon detains Australian TV crew over child custody row
BEIRUT- Lebanese police have detained an Australian film crew and accused them of involvement in a kidnapping of two children from their Lebanese father on behalf of their Australian mother.
"Four Australian nationals have been stopped on suspicion of kidnapping the two children," the Lebanese internal security services said on their Twitter account.
CCTV footage broadcast on Lebanese TV appeared to show the two children, who the father said were aged five and three, being bundled into a car by several attackers on a busy street in southern Beirut. The children's grandmother told media she had been hit on the head with a pistol during the abduction.
The father, Ali Zeid al-Amin, said by phone that he was scared for the children's safety but that they were with their mother. "It's their mum that kidnapped them, and that's what we know. She contacted me and told me she has the kids," he said.
