Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

A father who kidnapped his 23-year-old daughter after she inherited a fortune in her granddad’s will has been seized by police.

Terrified Noura Aly Essam was abducted by her dad after she was left a third of her grandfather’s estate so she could continue as a student.

Officials in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said her father – not named in local media – snatched her at her home after hearing about the legacy on Saturday, 4yesth June.

Noura, who is half-Egyptian and half-Korean, had lived with her grandfather and grandmother for years, say police.

Prosecutors say “disagreements erupted between the father and his daughter after her grandfather’s will”.

They claim he “took his daughter with him out of hatred for her and assaulted her”.

Noura, say police, was beaten and dragged out of her home back to her father’s house where she was locked in a bedroom.

Officials say the father – not named in local media – confiscated her mobile phone and injured her eye when he “stepped” on her.

Noura was only saved when police spotted a viral social media appeal to find her.

The campaign went viral on Sunday, 12th June, and two days later, Egypt’s Public Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement that she had been returned safely to her family and that her father had been arrested.

Prosecutors say he is facing kidnapping and theft charges.

The Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office, who named her as Nora, said in a statement issued on Tuesday, 14th June (in English): “As the Monitoring and Analytical Unit of the Statement Administration in the Attorney General’s Office, yesterday, observed several posts circulating on social media about the abduction of a father of his daughter called / Nora – 23 years old – in Maadi region, detained and assaulted […].”

The Egyptian authorities added: “Therefore, the Prosecutor ordered the detention of the accused in the department court, and requested the police investigation into the incident […].”

Meanwhile, the Korean Embassy to Egypt said on Twitter (in English): “Welcome back, Nora! The Embassy is thankful and assured for the timely address on Ms. Nora’s case by the Egyptian relevant authorities according to the request of the Embassy.

“The embassy has exerted its maximum effort to return Nora safely to her grandmother within Embassy’s every capability.”