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<\/p>\nLITTLE Cleo Smith was found playing with toys when cops smashed into a bedroom and saved her during a midnight raid.<\/p>\n
Police swooped on a locked property and rescued the four-year-old tot 18 days after she disappeared from her tent at Blowholes campground site in Western Australia.<\/p>\n
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Police revealed that they broke down the door of the house in Carnarvon, Western Australia, at 12:46am – where they found the four-year-old.<\/p>\n
Police cameras show the moment Cleo was carried in an officer's arms to safety following the burst in – returning her to her family after 18 days.<\/p>\n
She was alive and well, and was found playing with toys. <\/p>\n
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said: "They really did not know what they were going to encounter.<\/p>\n
"It was the hard work of the team that did (lead to the house), analysing all that information gathering it all, working through it and finding that needle in that haystack."<\/p>\n
It's also been revealed that the 36-year-old man who was arrested over her disappearance was pulled over in a car around midnight before they found the tot.<\/p>\n
The "quiet" suspect was arrested in the car, and then police proceeded to bust into the locked house, according to the West Australian. <\/p>\n
After weeks of searching in the Outback, Cleo was yesterday found in a room inside a locked house.<\/p>\n
The property where the little girl was found was just a seven-minute drive from her family home.<\/p>\n
Western Australia Police confirmed that cops broke their way into a locked property at around 1am in\u00a0Carnarvon, Western Australia.<\/p>\n
The tot was found by a group of officers and she told them: "My name is Cleo."<\/p>\n
Little Cleo has now been reunited with her family after a heartbreaking 18 days.<\/p>\n
Police say she appeared to be "physically ok" but is currently being cared for in hospital.<\/p>\n
Cleo's mum Ellie Smith spoke out for the first time since the little girl was found, posting the emotional message to Instagram: "Our family is whole again."<\/p>\n
Police confirmed the four-year-old was found "alive and well" – which is the "outcome we prayed for."<\/p>\n
The man believed to be the Cleo Smith kidnap suspect was pictured in an ambulance with head injuries today.<\/p>\n
He was pictured lying down in the ambulance with his bandaged head covered in a blanket.<\/p>\n
He has no connection to the family, it was confirmed.<\/p>\n
Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said in a statement this evening: "It\u2019s my privilege to announce that in the early hours of this morning, the Western Australia Police Force rescued Cleo Smith.<\/p>\n
"Cleo is alive and well. A police team broke their way into a locked house in Carnarvon about 1am.<\/p>\n
"They found little Cleo in one of the rooms."<\/p>\n
He revealed that one of the officers picked the four-year-old girl up in his arms, before asking what her name was.<\/p>\n
The tot, who police and civilians in Australia have been desperately looking for, replied: "My name is Cleo."<\/p>\n
Commissioner Blanch added: "Cleo was reunited with her parents a short time later.<\/p>\n
"This is the outcome we all hoped and prayed for.<\/p>\n
"It\u2019s the outcome we\u2019ve achieved because of some incredible police work.<\/p>\n
"I want to thank Cleo\u2019s parents, the Western Australian community and the many volunteers.<\/p>\n
"And of course, I want to thank my colleagues in the Western Australia Police Force.<\/p>\n
"I can confirm we have a man from Carnarvon in custody who is currently being questioned by detectives.<\/p>\n
"We\u2019ll have more to say on the rescue of Cleo as the day unfolds.<\/p>\n
"For now – Welcome home Cleo."<\/p>\n
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised the police force for their work in rescuing the little girl.<\/p>\n
"What wonderful, relieving news," he wrote.<\/p>\n
"Our prayers answered. Thank you to the many\u00a0Western Australia Police Force\u00a0officers involved in finding Cleo and supporting her family."<\/p>\n
Shocked neighbours have described seeing a "quiet man" buying nappies just two days before Cleo was found inside a locked home.<\/p>\n
The neighbour told Sunrise: "The other day – on Monday – we saw him in Woolworths buying Kimbies [nappies] and that.<\/p>\n
"But we didn't click on what he was buying them for."<\/p>\n
Speaking about the man who was arrested, he added: "Everyone knows the person who stays at that house, but no one would have thought it would be him.<\/p>\n
"We were shocked."<\/p>\n
Local resident Sahntayah McKenzie said she heard the sound of a child crying recently.<\/p>\n
She told The West Australian: "Not last night, the night before it\u2026I heard a little girl crying but I wouldn't expect it to be Cleo.<\/p>\n
"I didn't expect it would happen in this little neighbourhood, a lot of people know each other."<\/p>\n
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