“We were informed by Hamburg police that a girl was being held against her will,” Berlin police spokesman Guido Busch said. “We were able to secure her and hand her over to emergency child protection services.”
The girl, whose family comes from Serbia, had been taken to the home of another Serbian family in Berlin, where she was to marry their son on May Day.
Hamburg police have taken over the investigation and plan to question the girl's parents and other witnesses on Friday, spokesperson Andreas Schüpflin told The Local.
“The danger has been averted,” he said. “She is uninjured and doing well.”
According to Schüpflin, on Monday the girl informed her school teacher that she feared she would be forced into marriage by her parents. When she did not show up for school the following day, he called police.
Later the girl was able to let a friend know via internet chat the Spandau district address where she was being held, which he then passed on to police.
Neither Berlin or Hamburg police said they knew the girl’s family religion.
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