German girl, 8, freed after allegedly being locked away for nearly all her life

Prosecutors investigate case of girl said to have been hidden by mother and grandparents in Attendorn

An eight-year-old girl has been freed after allegedly being locked away by her mother and grandparents in western Germany since she was less than a year old, leaving her so physically underdeveloped as to be barely able to climb a flight of stairs.

The girl, named only as Maria" in German media, is understood to have spent most of the last seven and a half years in a locked room at her grandparents' house in Attendorn, a town of about 25,000 residents east of Cologne.