8:45am UK, Thursday May 15, 2008

The Austrian woman kept as a sex slave by her father for 24 years has thanked people for their support in her first public message since being released.

Words of thanks

Elisabeth Fritzl and her six surviving children were freed at the end of April after being held captive by Elisabeth's 73-year-old father, Josef.

In a handwritten message displayed on a noticeboard in the square of their home town of Amstetten, she thanked well-wishers for their messages of support since she and her family emerged from a cramped, windowless dungeon.

The family is currently being shielded away from the media glare and is receiving psychiatric counselling in a clinic in Amstetten, 60 miles west of Vienna.

In a drawing of an open pair of hands, Elisabeth, now 42, wrote: "I wish for the recovery of my daughter Kerstin, the love of my children, the protection of my family and for people with heart and compassion."

Josef Fritzl has confessed to imprisoning her since she was 18, repeatedly raping her and forcing her to bear seven of his children.

One of the children died soon after birth, three were taken upstairs to live "normal" lives as Fritzl's "grandchildren" and the other three remained incarcerated with their mother in the 55-square-metre dungeon below the family home.

Their eldest child, 19-year-old Kerstin, had to be taken to hospital on April 19, which brought the horrific case to light.

Kerstin has since been placed in an artificially-induced coma and is in intensive care on a life-support machine.

Doctors have said her condition, initially described as life-threatening, has since become stable.

Other members of the family also left messages.

Kerstin's 18-year-old brother, who has also never seen daylight, wrote of his delight over experiencing sun, fresh air, his family and nature.

The third child held underground since his birth, a five-year-old boy, dreamt of driving in a car, riding a sledge, of playing with other children and running in fields, reports said.

The head of the psychiatric hospital, Berthold Kepplinger, has been quoted as saying that the family must "very carefully and very slowly be led back into reality".