Austrian 'admits daughter abuse'
Police said Josef F admitted sexually abusing his daughter repeatedly
A 73-year-old Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children, police have said.
The head of the criminal affairs bureau in the province of Lower Austria, Franz Polzer, told the BBC that Josef F had confessed during questioning on Monday.
Authorities are caring for the daughter and her six surviving children.
Earlier, police released photos of the man's basement which showed concealed a network of tiny windowless chambers.
The rooms were equipped for sleeping and cooking, and with sanitary facilities, they added.
Shock and disbelief
Mr Polzer told the BBC he had admitted to sexually abusing his daughter, named only as Elisabeth F, repeatedly during the time he imprisoned her.
Police said a hidden concrete door concealed a network of tiny chambers
He said Josef had told investigators that one of their children had died in infancy and that he had taken the dead body and thrown it into an oven.
On Sunday evening, police confirmed they had found the cellar where his Elisabeth was allegedly held along with three of her children.
Three other children were adopted or fostered by the suspect. His wife, Rosemarie, appears to have been unaware of the suspected crimes.
Police found the cellar after Josef gave them a code to unlock the hidden door.
Small search teams of policemen, some in protective suits, have been seen going in and out of the house in the small town of Amstetten, about 130km (80 miles) west of Vienna, on Monday.
The BBC's Bethany Bell says that among the neighbours there is sense of shock and disbelief.
"You can't believe that this is happening here," one woman said.
The case, our correspondent notes, is reminiscent of that of Natasha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager held captive in a cellar in a house in a Vienna suburb for eight years, who ran to freedom in 2006.
While police are not connecting the two cases, many Austrians are asking how such matters went undiscovered, she says.
