San Salvador, Feb 18 (IANS/EFE) A six-year-old Honduran girl, who had been held by kidnappers in El Salvador since April 2007, was rescued near the municipality of San Matias and five captors were apprehended, the police said.

The girl was found after her relatives came to the country from Honduras and filed a complaint.

One of those arrested in Monday's police operation was a 65-year-old woman.

The girl was taken from Honduras to El Salvador in April 2007 after her mother contacted one of the arrested people to bring her illegally to the US, where the mother lives, police said in a communique.

However, the man who was contacted by the mother decided not to take the girl to the US but rather to 'make a profit off her', the communique stated.

'The modus operandi was to make contact with the relatives of the girl and ask them for money both to support the child as well as (so the kidnappers) would not kill her,' said the Salvadoran police.

Police said that the arrested people will face charges of people trafficking and kidnapping.