A NATIONWIDE search for a missing mother and her three children ended in Blackburn late last night.

Amanda Sparrow sparked a massive police operation when she went missing from her Southampton home with her three young children.

The 20-year-old who was said to have psychiatric problems turned up at Blackburn Royal Infirmary late last night with her baby daughter Sophie suffering from suspected feeding problems and dehydration.

Eight-month-old Sophie and her sisters Stephanie, three, and Abigail, two, are now being cared for in the Blackburn area.

Hampshire police have arrested Amanda Sparrow for neglect and three other people who were with her were arrested.

Police revealed Ms Sparrow could be a danger to her children when she went missing and she had disappeared with no money or spare clothes. The Hampshire police had alerted forces across the country and said the mother was believed to have travelled north.

All four were taken back to Southampton to be questioned by Hampshire detectives late last night.

Ms Sparrow, who is is being questioned over allegations of neglect, was staying at the Devonshire Hotel in Bridge Street with two men and a women.

The three other suspects were all wanted by Hampshire police on a variety of charges.

The mother and her three companions turned up at BRI shortly before 9pm and left the baby before returning to the Devonshire Hotel.

Medics suspected something was wrong when the four people and the baby turned up at the hospital and raised the alarm.

One of the men was arrested at Blackburn Royal and the woman and the two others were arrested later back at the hotel.

Ian Young, a resident at the Devonshire Hotel, spent four days with the four fugitives.

He said: "These people seemed all right. They said they were travellers who had come from down south.

"When they went to the hospital with the baby they left the two older girls with us for us to keep an eye on them." "Amanda said she had left Southampton because she had had a violent husband and Blackburn was the first place she came to."

He added: "I knew something was wrong with Amanda she didn't seem quite right in the head.

"The other three people seemed normal travellers but when the police turned up it was a real shock. There must have been about 20 policemen and they took all three of them away in handcuffs."

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