‘Kidnapped’ man found in cellar next door after 27 years

A man who was presumed dead after he was “kidnapped” as a teenager has been found in his neighbour’s cellar 27 years later.

Omar Bin Omran disappeared from his home in Djelfa, in Algeria, when he was 17 years old and his family assumed he had been killed during a civil war.

But Mr Bin Omran (45) was discovered in his 61-year-old neighbour’s cellar on Sunday.

Shocking footage has emerged of Mr Bin Omran being helped out of the hay-covered cellar where he had allegedly been hidden since 1997 – metres away from his family home.

Reports in Algeria claimed he had been kept under haystacks in a covered well on a sheep farm.

Officials confirmed they arrested the 61-year-old man suspected of keeping the prisoner for 27 years.

Public prosecutors in Djelfa said in a statement: “The Djelfa Attorney General’s Office informs the public that on May 12 at 8pm local time it found victim Omar B, aged 45, in the case of his neighbour, BA, aged 61.”

The suspect is believed to live alone and works as a civil servant.

A neighbour told Algerian TV station Bilad: “His poor mother died while he was in captivity, without knowing what had happened to him, without knowing that all this time he was really right beside her.”

The missing man’s family recalled how his dog used to wait on the doorstep of his alleged kidnapper’s home after he disappeared. But the dog later vanished as well.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office received a complaint claiming Mr Bin Omran was in the house of one of his neighbours, said a court official in Djelfa. (© Evening Standard)