2 missing siblings from western Manitoba found with father in New Brunswick

Two children reported missing when they didn't return home after a weekend visit with their father in western Manitoba have been found safe in New Brunswick, RCMP say.

Mounties said in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon that the children were found with their father in Bathurst, N.B., and will be coming back to Manitoba.

There are no charges against the father at this time and the investigation is continuing, RCMP say.

CBC has removed the photos and names of the children now that they have been found safe.

The children, age 10 and 12, biked to their father's place in Hartney, Man., on Thursday as agreed, RCMP said Monday in a news release.

"The parents are separated, so it was on agreement that the children were to go to their father's house, but they were to return to their mother on Saturday afternoon," RCMP media relations officer Tara Seel said earlier Tuesday, before the children were found.

"They didn't show up and so the mother, of course, was making phone calls and looking around."

The siblings hadn't been seen since they left school on Thursday, and their father, 41, did not show up for work on Monday, police said.

Seel said RCMP didn't issue an Amber Alert for the children because the situation didn't meet the criteria.

Criteria for an Amber Alert are:

• The child or children must be younger than 18.
• There's a belief the child has been abducted.
• There's a belief the child is in grave danger.
• Information is available that may help locate the child and/or the person accused of abducting them, like a description of the child, the suspect, or the vehicle driven by the abductor.
• The alert is issued within a reasonable amount of time from the moment of the abduction.

"There's no indication that the father has any intention of hurting his children, so it's not meeting all the criteria of an Amber Alert," Seel said Tuesday morning, and it wasn't clear where the father was headed.

Police believed the father and children were still in the province, she said.