Texas officials appeal court ruling on polygamist case

Authorities in Texas on Friday appealed a court ruling that said child welfare officials had no right to seize hundreds of children from a west Texas polygamist ranch.

Texas Child Protective Services has asked the state's Supreme Court to block Thursday's ruling from the Third Court of Appeals in Austin that said the state failed to show the children were in any immediate danger when they were rounded up last month.

Also Friday, child welfare officials agreed to reunite 12 children with their parents until the Supreme Court makes its decision.

Child welfare officials removed more than 400 children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in the town of Eldorado, about 300 kilometres northwest of San Antonio.

They entered the compound, which is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in April after a 16-year-old called an abuse hotline alleging that her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her. Authorities have yet to locate the girl and are investigating whether the call was a hoax.

Following Thursday's ruling, the state Department of Family and Protective Services issued a statement saying it removed the children "after finding a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse that puts every child at the ranch at risk."

Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, accused the state of persecuting them for their faith and denied any children were abused.