Austrian town holds vigil for woman abused by father for 24 yrs

Hundreds of people staged an emotional tribute to the Austrian woman imprisoned
by her father for 24 years and the seven children he fathered with her in
captivity.

The candlelight vigil in
Amstetten, the small town in western Austria which is now home to an
international media circus, was organised by parents of children at a local
convent school to show their solidarity and outrage.

Crowds laid down candles under rain in the main square
as the town of 23,000 people sought to cast off the notoriety brought to their
doorstep by Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old at the centre of the country's
dungeon-incest scandal.

"We want to
show that Amstetten is not a town for criminals. But it's mostly about showing
solidarity and help to the victims," mayor Herbert Katzengruber told the
Austrian news agency APA.

The vigil
was intended to emphasise the town's shock and also send a signal of hope,
Katzengruber added.

Residents have
repeatedly insisted they saw nothing amiss before the horror story was made
public on Sunday.

By all accounts,
Fritzl lived a quiet life with his 69-year-old wife Rosemarie and their three
"grandchildren".

Neighbours have
said they never saw any clue as to the suffering down below in the cellar where
Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive for almost a quarter of a century.


Access to the house, blinds drawn,
at Ybbstrasse number 40, is the goal for 200 or so journalists who have arrived
from all around the world.





var RN = new String (Math.random());
var RNS = RN.substring (2,11);
var b2 = ' ';
if (doweshowbellyad==1)
bellyad.innerHTML = b2;