The model daughter of a British businessman is recovering after being kidnapped with her husband and child outside a restaurant in Brazil.
Luciana Curtis has worked with the likes of Beyonce and appeared on the front cover of magazines including Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.
She was taken hostage with her photographer husband Henrique Gendre and their 11-year-old child as they left the eatery in the upmarket area of Alto do Lapa, Sao Paulo.
Armed robbers held them for around 12 hours and reportedly stole their car and took money from their bank accounts before releasing them on Thursday.
Brazilian media reports said they were kept overnight in a wooden shack with just a mattress, toilet and sink on Wednesday night.
Ms Curtis, 53, and her family were released by their captors as the police launched a desperate search.
The couple’s eldest child discovered they had not returned home and alerted a relative who called officers.
A spokesman for Ms Curtis confirmed the kidnap to local press, adding: “The family has been released and they are safe and well.”
A specialist police anti-kidnap unit is investigating and officers have been analysing CCTV footage around the unnamed restaurant located on a street identified locally as Avenida Pio XI.
In a statement, police said: “The armed criminals approached the victims outside a restaurant and took them captive.
“During the search by specialist police teams, the gang abandoned the family and fled.”
Ms Curtis, originally from Brazil, is the daughter of British businessman Malcolm Leo Curtis and educator Katia Maria Furtado de Mendonça Curtis.
She lives in New York but has spent years in London.
Ms Curtis won the Brazilian final of Supermodel of the World in 1993 and has done adverts for the likes of Arden B, Harrods, H&M and Victoria’s Secret.
