A critically-ill 5-year-old boy driven to Spain by his parents against doctors' advice is receiving medical treatment for a brain tumor in a Spanish hospital as his parents await extradition to Britain, police said today.
Officers received a phone call late yesterday from a hotel east of Malaga advising that a vehicle fitting the description circulated by police was on its premises. Both parents were arrested and the boy, Ashya King, was taken to a hospital, a police spokesman said.
Within 72 hours of their arrest, the parents will appear before a National Court judge in Madrid pending their return to Britain.
The boy's fate will depend on medical advice, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to be cited by name in the media.
Spanish National Police had published several tweets on its official account giving details of the King family and asking the public to call an emergency number with any information that could help solve the case of the missing boy.
An international search began Thursday for the boy, who has a severe brain tumor, after his parents removed him from a hospital in the southern English city of Southampton.
A European arrest warrant had been issued by Interpol, at the request of British police, for the boy's parents, Brett and Naghemeh, both Jehovah's Witnesses.
The family had been seen travelling from Britain to France aboard a car ferry and Spanish police had been alerted. Spanish state television broadcaster TVE said on its website that the minors among the couple's five other children were being looked after by grown-up brothers who were adults.
