Missing girl is found alive in US

Police say the girl had not been seen outside in the neighbourhood

A teenager from Connecticut who went missing for nearly a year has been found alive, locked in a tiny room in the home of a family acquaintance.

Police searching for clues to the girl's disappearance discovered the room hidden beneath the staircase behind a piece of heavy furniture.

The 15-year-old, whose name has not been made public, had not been seen since June 2006.

Three adults have been arrested in connection with her disappearance.

Police from Bloomfield, Connecticut, believed they might have been searching the house, in nearby West Hartford, for a body.

Instead they found the girl sitting inside the hidden room, which was just 90cm high and 1.5m deep.

It was not clear if the girl had been living in the room, although she could not have opened the locked and barricaded door on her own, police said.

Investigators said she was pale and may have been indoors for some time. No-one in the area had seen her outside.