Woman and children freed by police in Brazil after being held captive by husband and father for 17 years

A Brazillian woman and her two adult children were freed by police after being held captive by her husband for 17 years.

The woman and her children, who are 19 and 22, were taken to hospital and were seriously dehydrated and malnourished, local media has reported. 

The family was rescued from a house in the Guartiba neighbourhood in the west of Rio de Janerio on Thursday, according to authorities. 

Photographs released to the media by police show the “subhuman” living conditions. 

The father, named as Luiz Antonio Santos Silva by police, was arrested. 

Luiz Antonio Santos Silva will now face charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, ill-treatment and torture.

"The two youngsters, who are the children of the woman and the suspect, were tied up, soiled and starved," Rio's military police, who arrested the father, said in a statement.

An unnamed neighbour told the G1 news website that that after seeing the two children they didn’t think they’d survive another week.  

"I tried to speak to the mother in the ambulance but she was so weak that she didn't manage to make a sound,” they added.