The woman said her name was Natascha Kampusch and told police she had been kidnapped and kept in a small enclosure under a garage for years.

Her alleged kidnapper committed suicide on Wednesday night.

According to Major General Nikolas Koch, Chief Investigator for Austria's federal police, Kampusch had been identified by a scar on one of her ears that dates back to an operation she had when she was younger.

"There are a lot of hints that it's her, we have several traces and personal hints, the personal are the parents and her sister, and we found her passport in the room that she'd been imprisoned. It was the passport that she was carrying when she was taken hostage eight years ago."

The discovery could bring closure to one of the biggest police mysteries in recent Austrian history.

Kampusch, then aged 10, vanished in Vienna on her way to school on March 2, 1998.

Her disappearance triggered a massive search that extended into neighbouring Hungary.

On Wednesday afternoon, police said they found the young woman in a garden northeast of Vienna.