DNA proves teen's ID as missing Austrian girl

Austrian police said Friday that DNA tests prove that a young Austrian woman found this week is the same girl who went missing eight years ago.

Natascha Kampusch disappeared while on her way to school when she was10, and was held in a cellar. She was discovered in a yard in the small town of Strasshof outside of Vienna this week. Relatives said they recognized her, but police waited for DNA test results to confirm her identity.

Police announced results of the DNA testsand released new details about the girl's disappearance at a news conference on Friday.

Sabina Sirny, Natascha's sister, told Austrian TV on Thursday that her mother never lost hope. She said her mother nearly had a nervous breakdown when police told her they had found her missing daughter.

"She always said she was still alive," Sirny said.

Wolfgang Priklopil, a 44-year-old communications technician, who police say kidnapped and held the girl for eight years,killed himself by throwing himself in front of a train in Vienna on Wednesday.

'Wolfgang was always kind to me'

An article in the Krone Zeitung, Austria's largest newspaper, said Nataschatold police she had to call Priklopil "master" for the first year. She also told police that"Wolfgang was always kind to me," according to the paper.

When she was abducted on March 2, 1998,Natascha was pulled into a vehicle and told, "Keep still, lie down or something is going to happen to you," the paper reported.

Police said Priklopil committed suicide a few hours after the girlescaped when the door to her room was left open. She ran to a garden nearby and identified herself to an elderly woman.

Police also released photos of the place where Nataschawas kept. They show a small windowless, underground room at the bottom of a set of concrete steps, with an entrance so small it had to be crawled through and kept closed by a metal hatch.The roomhad a bed and toilet and it was cluttered with books.

Strasshof is a semi-ruraltown about 16 kilometres northeast of the city where Nataschalived. Neighbors said they were shocked by the reports and had seen no signs that alerted their suspicions.