A man who reportedly went missing almost three decades ago was discovered 200 metres away from the home he lived in with his family in Algeria as a teen.

Omar Bin Omran (or Imran) allegedly disappeared at the age of 17. Twenty-seven years after he initially went missing, local media in Algeria reported that Omran was rescued on Sunday, May 12. According to a report from the UK’s DailyMail, he was found alive in the neighbour’s house in a hole in the ground.

According to the article, Omran’s family reportedly assumed he had been killed during the civil war between the North African nation’s government and various Islamist rebel groups that raged for 10 years in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Omran, now 45, disappeared in 1998 after he went missing while on his way to a vocational school. The man was reportedly discovered after the captor’s brother reportedly aired grievances on social media, allegedly due to an inheritance dispute.

According to the DailyMail report, this prompted the family to storm the house in a search for Omran.

His captor, his 61-year-old neighbor, reportedly tried to flee the house but was captured and arrested.ZZ