10:17am UK, Thursday May 15, 2008

An Austrian woman who was held captive for eight years now owns the house in which she was imprisoned.

Kampusch in an earlier interview

Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil, who then hid her in a cellar dungeon in his home near Vienna.

She escaped in August 2006, whereupon Priklopil threw himself in front of a train.

Ms Kampusch told German magazine Bunte that she wanted to keep the house where she was held to protect it from vandals and stop it being torn down.

"I know it's grotesque - I must now pay for electricity, water and taxes on a house I never wanted to live in," she said.

Ms Kampusch, who is believed to have made more than £1m from interviews, reportedly claimed the house from the estate of her captor.

The 20-year-old also told the magazine that she had visited it since her escape.

"Nothing is as threatening as it was back then," she said. "But at the same time, it's still a house of horrors for me."

The house is less than 100 miles away from Amstetten, the town where Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter as a sex slave in a home-made dungeon beneath the family home for 24 years.

Kampusch said that hearing about Fritzl's crimes reminded her of her own experience.

"My stomach churned when I saw the pictures," she said. "I felt really sick.

"All the emotions that I've carefully tried to suppress were suddenly there again. It's very stressful."

Speaking of her own time in captivity, Kampusch said: "It's a very dark past. It's as if I lost my memory and have now started a completely new life."