Palma and Barcelona police located the woman in a Barcelona hotel. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

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A 57-year-old grandmother was arrested in Barcelona on Saturday, having apparently kidnapped her ten-year-old grandson with the intention of taking him to England.

The child's mother says that her mother had been living with the family in Palma for three months. Some days ago, she started to act strangely. On one occasion, a suitcase was found hidden behind a curtain. On another, she went into the boy's room and packed clean clothes into a backpack. Asked what she was doing, the woman said that the clothes were dirty and that she was going to wash them.

On Friday last week, the grandmother, grandson and family dog went out for a walk around 9am. They didn't return, and the parents were unable to make any contact. At 1pm, the National Police were notified. Ports and the airport were alerted but found no record of anyone with the names of the grandmother or grandson.

However, police in Palma and Barcelona were able to locate the woman. She and the boy were staying in a hotel in Hospitalet (Barcelona). Units from the National Police went to the hotel, where they arrested the woman. The child was perfectly safe and was reunited with his mother, who had taken the first available flight to Barcelona.