Racism claim over seizure of blond gypsy children in Ireland for tests

Two blond children who were taken by Irish police from their gypsy parents have been returned to their families after DNA tests determined they were rightfully theirs, an episode that raised accusations of racism.

Irish police were responding to public informants fuelled by media coverage of an alleged child-abduction case in Greece involving a blond-haired girl and a family of gypsies, known as Roma.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter told Parliament he was "pleased and relieved" that the children had been returned to their homes.

He ordered police commissioner Martin Callinan to produce a report explaining why officers felt it necessary to take the children - a boy aged two and a girl, seven - from their families.

"We must all be particularly conscious of the regrettable distress that arose for the two families and their children," Shatter said.

Pavee Point, a Dublin-based support group for gypsies, said the police were guilty of racial profiling and child abduction.