A four-year-old Australian girl was found alive last night, 18 days after vanishing from her family’s tent in a remote campsite in Western Australia.

Cleo Smith was discovered locked in a house in the coastal town of Carnarvon, not far from where she was last seen.

Police forced their way into the house at around 1am local time and found the young girl inside, Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said, before she was then reunited with her parents.

“One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her ‘what’s your name?’,” Col. Blanch said in the statement. “She said – ‘My name is Cleo’.”

“Physically she appears to be in good health but obviously medical professionals are with her at the moment”, Col Blanch said. The young girl was alone in the home at the time of her discovery.

Police detained a 36-year-old man from Carnarvon, a town of 5,000 people, for questioning. A neighbour claimed to have seen the arrested man buying nappies from the local Woolworths supermarket.  

“We’ll have more to say on the rescue of Cleo as the day unfolds,” Mr Blanch said. “For now – welcome home Cleo.”

Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith wrote on Instagram, saying only “Our family is whole again”.

Police last month had offered 1 million AUD (£546,000) for information leading to Cleo’s recovery after she was feared abducted from her family’s tent at a remote campsite in a coastal tourist spot, about 620 miles north of Perth, on October 16.

Cleo’s disappearance has drawn national attention, with many Australians taking to social media to express their anguish for her family as investigators mounted an extensive air, sea and ground search.