MADRID — Spanish police freed a man imprisoned in a pigeon loft by his 76-year-old brother and 61-year-old sister and arrested them for locking him away while living off his monthly 1,000-euro (S$1,549) pension, authorities said.

In a statement, the national police said it was unclear how long the 59-year-old man had been hidden away but that doctors had found no medical records for him since 1996.

Police found the man naked on a mattress covered with his own faeces after going to a home in the town of Dos Hermanas in the southern region of Andalucia due to reports that the brother had harassed locals after becoming “extremely drunk”.

Inside, police noticed a barricaded door behind which a dilapidated staircase led up to the 3-by-3 metre room, described by police as a “sort of roofless pigeon coop”, where they found the man.

Police said the siblings had told them that their brother was mentally handicapped and so they kept him confined for his own security. REUTERS