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Nearly 24 hours after a six-year-old boy was abducted from a home in St-Eustache where a woman had been found dead, triggering one of the longest Amber Alerts in Quebec history and a search spanning two provinces, the child was found safe in Ontario late Friday afternoon.

A 41-year-old man was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police after officers chased him down and laid down a spike pad to disable the car he was driving on a forested stretch of Highway 41 in Griffith, Ont., about 115 kilometres west of Ottawa. Police Tasered the man after he bolted from the car and ran into the woods. The boy was found in the car.

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Photo by Dave Dutton / Postmedia News

It was the end of a chase that saw the 41-year-old cover more than 1,500 kilometres, driving from St-Eustache, just north of Montreal, 500 kilometres into northern Quebec Thursday night, only to head back to southern Ontario Friday morning. Ultimately, it was the concerted work of police and the power of social media that tracked him down, with numerous people calling in his whereabouts to 911 when he or the car he was driving was spotted.

The operation was still continuing Friday evening. The Sûreté du Québec said it was asking the public’s help to find 71-year-old Yvon Lacasse, whose car was used in order to flee to Ontario, possibly from Lachute.