Norway amnesiac: Czech couple say he is their son Published duration 10 April 2014

image copyright Norwegian Police image caption The man speaks fluent English with an eastern European accent

A Czech couple have come forward to say that a man found in a snowdrift near Oslo last December apparently suffering from amnesia is their son, Norwegian police say.

His photograph was made public this week in an effort to help identify him.

Police suspect he may have been the victim of a crime.

Oslo police said media attention in the Czech Republic led police there to a couple who confirmed that the man in the photograph was their son.

In a statement, the police said they are contacting the couple and attempting to verify the man's identity by comparing DNA samples.

'Drugged and assaulted'

A police spokeswoman quoted by the AFP news agency said that the man's disappearance had not been reported in the Czech Republic.

"The circumstances of his presence in Norway remain unclear," she said.

As well as Czech, the man speaks fluent English with a Slavic accent, according to earlier reports.

In an interview with Norwegian TV, he said he believed he had been drugged, robbed and sexually assaulted.

He added that injuries to his hands suggested he may have been tied up. However, he could not recall how he had ended up in Norway.

He was found by a passerby in a snowdrift east of Oslo, semi-conscious and poorly dressed for the winter.

Amnesia, the partial or complete loss of memory, is usually associated with either physical trauma such as a blow to the head or some sort of psychological trauma.

It is usually a temporary condition and tends to affect only a certain part of a person's experience.

Related Topics Norway