The girl is now in the care of the social services after being spotted leaving a shop in Knalleland in Borås shortly after 9pm.

The girl has been interviewed with the help of interpreter, but has not confirmed where she has spent the past four and a half days.

“She told me nothing about where she has been,” said Sven Persson at Västra Götaland police.

After the interview, the girl was handed over to the social services in Svenljunga in accordance with the Care of Young Persons Act (LVU).

“The parents will be informed,” Sven Persson said.

The girl was apparently alone when she was recognized from media photographs by the shop’s staff; nobody has since been arrested in connection with the case.

Around one hundred people, mostly home guard, were engaged in the search on Tuesday, which had been suspended in the afternoon as police believed that the girl was no longer in the area.

The police do not currently suspect any offence in connection with the 10-year-old’s disappearance but had previously opened an investigation into suspected kidnapping as a matter of course.

The girl is a member in a family of asylum seekers who received a deportation order last week. The family’s expulsion has been postponed as a result of the girl’s disappearance.