An eight-year-old girl is said to have been held in a house in Sauerland for almost her entire life. The public prosecutor's office in Siegen is investigating the child's mother and grandparents, as spokesman Patrick Baron von Grotthuss said on Saturday.

It is assumed that the girl lived in her grandparents' house in Attendorn for almost seven years - without being allowed to leave it. The allegations are deprivation of liberty and mistreatment of wards. However, the mother and grandparents have not yet commented on this. Several media had reported on the case.

According to the public prosecutor's office, the mother once told the youth welfare office that she and her child were moving to Italy. However, the youth welfare office then received information that the child was not in Italy at all. Italian authorities then confirmed that the mother and child were not on site - and had probably never been there. Therefore, the youth welfare office and the police made representations to the house in September.

The girl is now in a foster family, said chief prosecutor Patrick Baron von Grotthuss. There is currently no evidence of physical abuse or malnutrition. "However, we have the situation that the outside world has not seen it," he said. The investigations are not yet complete.