Santo Domingo.– A little Dominican girl, two years old, who had been kidnapped earlier this week in the northeastern city of San Francisco de Macoris, was freed Saturday "safe and sound" by her captors, the Dominican police announced.

The case, which had upset the country, had a happy ending when the child was discovered alone and crying just after midnight at a fast-food restaurant in the northern city of Santiago, according to a police communique. "The little girl was taken there by a woman, who after buying some products, abandoned her in the play area," the report said.

According to the police, the kidnappers took the decision to free the girl due to the pressure from the officers, who had launched a wide-ranging search operation in Santiago and others in the northern part of the country.