Image: Seven News

Three men have been arrested over the violent kidnapping of two women and two children in the state’s Central West yesterday.

The men allegedly went to a rural property near Condoblin armed with a shotgun, a knife and an axe, bashing a 68-year-old man and setting his home alight.

When the man regained consciousness his house had burned to the ground and four members of his family – his wife, daughter and two grandsons – were missing.

The 68-year-old managed to tell police one of the men was his estranged son-in-law, before being airlifted to Orange Base Hospital in a critical condition.

That evening, police found the 71-year-old woman and the two boys, aged 13 and 14, who had been dumped on the side of Putty Road at Windsor, in Sydney’s north-west.

Police swarmed on a nearby petrol station at Sackville, arresting two of the alleged kidnappers, aged 23 and 29.

At about 11.30pm, a large-scale police operation found the final kidnapper and the 41-year-old woman in bushland near Blaxlands Ridge, on Sydney’s north-western outskirts.

The 44-year-old man was taken to hospital under police guard, with all three men expected to face serious charges.

More to come…