RAMALLAH, January 21, 2012 (WAFA) – A father in the city of Qalqilia, northern West Bank, locked his daughter inside a bathroom in their house for nine years and had not allowed her to leave, a police statement said Saturday.

It said police went to a house in the city after they received information that a father was holding his daughter inside the bathroom.

When the police arrived at the house, they heard screams from inside the bathroom.

They forced the father to get the keys and open the door to find his daughter, whom police said seemed to be 20 years of age, inside along with a mattress and a blanket.

The father, said the police, admitted to locking up his daughter in the bathroom since she was 11, first in Nabi Elias village and then in Qalqilya, following family differences.

Police arrested the father and handed the girl to social welfare staff.

M.S.