A four-year-old girl has been saved from abuse after police released images of her which had circulated on the “dark net” in a bid to identify her.

The girl was identified within hours of the pictures being released as investigators tried to catch her abuser.

A 24-year-old man from the district of Wesermach near the German city of Bremen was been arrested after he was turned in by the girl’s mother and grandparents.

Police released the images on Monday and by midnight the girl and her alleged abuser had been identified.

Georg Vorfuk from Frankfurt's Attorney General's office admitted that releasing the images of the girl was unconventional, but they had taken the decision to do so because the risk of the abuse continuing was too great.

The suspect, who is thought to have been in a relationship with the child's mother, was abusing the girl and then sharing the images on a child pornography platform on the dark net.

Officers also confirmed she had been subjected to “serious sexual abuse” between October last year and July this year.