Man collects wrong 'granddaughter'

Teachers at a Belgian nursery school panicked after a man came to pick up his granddaughter but got the wrong girl.

When the parents of two-year-old Marie arrived to pick her up they were told she had already been collected by her grandfather.

Teachers at Don Bosco school in Huy immediately called the police who organised a search, reports the Antwerp Gazette.

While they were still searching, police received a call from Fernand Etienne, 60, to say his wife had told him the little girl he had collected was not their granddaughter.

"I'm still surprised," he explained later. "The little girl has the same looks as my granddaughter - same age, blonde hair. And her name is Marie like our granddaughter.

"I had no reason to suspect it was another girl since the teacher had called her for me."

Mr Etienne realised something was wrong when the little girl started crying in the car and he couldn't calm her down.

He called his daughter, Marie's mother, who spoke to the girl by phone and calmed her down - without realising she wasn't speaking to her own daughter.

Finally, the grandmother solved the mystery and Mr Etienne hurried back to school to collect his real granddaughter and return the other Marie to her parents.