British deputy PM questions arrest of parents' saving kid

British deputy prime minister has come in support of a campaign which seeks to to allow the parents of cancer patient Ashya King to be reunited with their five-year-old son, a media report said Tuesday.

The couple were arrested in Spain after taking Ashya King from Southampton General hospital without doctors' consent, prompting police to launch a major search for them.

Ashya King's father has said he took the gravely ill five-year-old from hospital without consent to get him treatment unavailable in Britain, a media report said.

British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said arrest and detention of family trying to do best for son with cancer is not appropriate.

Clegg questioned the reason for using the "full force of the law" against Brett and Naghmeh King, for whom he expressed his sympathy after they spent another night away from their son in separate Spanish prisons after refusing to be extradited to Britain, the Guardian reported.

A judge in Madrid ordered the couple should be remanded for up to 72 hours while the court considers whether to grant a British extradition request.

The little boy is being cared for at a children's hospital in Spain's Málaga state where his condition is said to be stable.

Clegg expressed support for calls for the Kings to be allowed access to Ashya King, as a petition calling for their release neared 100,000 signatures.

"A little boy is on his own in a hospital, doesn't speak Spanish, is cut off from his parents and his siblings and I would like to see him together with his family as soon as possible," Clegg told BBC Breakfast.

Juan Isidro Fernandez Diaz, the couple's lawyer in Spain, said they were considering suing the National Health Service (NHS).

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "They are going to prepare legal demands against the hospital in Southampton. Legal action will be against the hospital."