This little girl, aged six, who was snatched from a park while playing in a sand pit has been found at the home of a stranger who is believed to have kidnapped her.

The shocking child snatching happened when the little girl was left alone very briefly by her family, and when she returned to the sandbox, the child had vanished.

The gran then called the police in a panic and said that she had only gone away for a few minutes to take the little girl’s three-year-old brother to the toilet and was shocked when the girl had completely vanished on her return.

A citywide search was carried out, including 150 volunteers, which eventually resulted in the girl being spotted on CCTV cameras with an unknown man when they had stopped at a convenience store to buy sweets for her, and a beer for himself.

As a result of the footage, he was tracked down to his home in the city of Shakhty, in Russia’s Rostov Region near where the kidnapping occurred on 18 July.

Doctors are currently examining the little girl, named Alisa Belaya, and are interrogating the man who admitted taking her to his home, according to Irina Volk, the representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

She said that the man arrested was a 41-year-old resident of Shakhty, whose name was not revealed but he apparently had previous criminal convictions, although it was not revealed what these were.

A statement from the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Rostov Region, obtained by Newsflash, said that the investigative department, along with criminologists, confirmed that the child had not endured any physical harm, and no injury had been committed against her during her ordeal.