"He [the 25-year-old] had long hair, a dirty beard, wore old clothes and looked confused". There was something "unworldly" about him, as the bar's owner, Chris Westerbeek, would soon recount to Dutch news outlet RTV Drenthe, and when Westerbeek sat down to talk to him on Sunday, he learned why.

He had not been outside in nine years, he told Westerbeek.

The family included the 58-year-old father and 6 of his sons aged 18-25, but then one of them escaped and fled to a nearby pub.

The family's weird living arrangement was discovered when the eldest of the young adults, Jan Zon van Dorsten, 25, turned up at a pub in Ruinerworld.

"For ten years, we have had no contact", Franz said. "He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living".

When police arrived at the farmhouse, they discovered a secret staircase hidden behind a cupboard in the living room that led them to the living space underneath the house.

On Tuesday police arrested a 58-year-old man who is the only tenant of the farm. The children told investigators they were all adults, which police said will "of course be further investigated". The family told the police that they were all over 18 years old, although the police are verifying the people's ages and their relationship to each other. The group was reportedly preparing to stay there until "the end of time", according to RTV.

Officials did not confirm reports regarding the family's beliefs, saying the case was still under investigation. "What exactly happened in the farmhouse is still very unclear".

"The man is still in custody and is being questioned", said Drenthe police spokesman Grietje Hartstra. The home is a few dozen meters off the main road, accessible only by crossing a bridge over a small stream, then driving up a dirt road until reaching a gate.

An animal ambulance is seen at the site of a remote farm where a family spent years locked away in a cellar, according to Dutch broadcasters' reports, in Ruinerwold, Netherlands October 16, 2019.

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The local postman said he had never delivered a letter there.

He told Algemeen Dagblad news website: "It's actually pretty unusual, now I come to think about it".

He has been identified as Josef B, originally from Austria, according to the BBC.

Residents and neighbors were shocked, telling reporters that they had only ever seen a man at the property, but had no idea the man had a family. "We have no idea who this can be".

The Austrian man apparently rented the property and did fix work on it.

Zwarthuis is some 15 minutes drive from Ruinerwold, where the family of young adults were found living in a "makeshift" part of the property on Monday. "But this? We never suspected this".

I don't even know how to start this story, but a Dutch family was found to be living inside of a hidden room in their farmhouse - for, get this.

A statement from local police said Josef B is refusing to cooperate but is now being interrogated. They have now been examined by doctors, the police said. Others simply compared the case to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a Netflix comedy series about a woman adapting to the world after living in a bunker with a doomsday cult for several years.

The local mayor said at a press conference earlier this week that the mother of the family is believed to have died a long time ago.

He added: "I've never seen anything like it".