A man has been arrested after gardaí issued a public appeal for assistance in relation to the suspected false imprisonment of a woman in the Dublin region earlier.
The vehicle in which the two people were travelling was intercepted in Co Mayo.
It is understood that concerns for the safety of the woman emerged following an incident in the Dublin area overnight.
That led gardaí to try and identify her precise whereabouts and whether she had been taken somewhere against her will.
Detectives spent much of the morning and early afternoon reviewing CCTV footage and checking mobile phone cell data to try and locate the woman.
Garda stations around the country were also notified about the search and then the assistance of the public was sought when the relatively unusual step of appealing for sightings of a specific vehicle was made.
That came in the form of a call for people to report any sightings of a yellow Renault Trafic van which had last been seen in Dublin city centre.
Gardaí asked people not to approach the van but to report any sightings.
Soon afterwards, on foot of that public appeal, the vehicle was spotted in Co Mayo, where local gardaí moved to arrest the driver and take the woman to safety.
It is believed the two occupants of the van were in their late 30s or early 40s and known to each other, but not related.
The woman is said to be safe and well and is being assisted by gardaí.
The man has been detained at a garda station in the region and is being questioned by detectives.
