French police used Snapchat to locate a girl who said she was kidnapped and abused, reports say

• A 14-year-old was kidnapped and abused by two men in Marseille, France 3 reported.
• Police tracked the girl's location using Snapchat and arrested the men, according to France 3.

A 14-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped and abused by two men was rescued by police who tracked her down using Snapchat, according to the French news outlet France 3.

The girl, whose identity was not mentioned in news reports, was originally from Ardèche and had run away from home on January 10, according to the radio station France Bleu, translated from French. She had previously ran away from home, France Bleu reported.

The teenager used her phone to contact her mother from an apartment in Marseille on Friday morning, France 3 reported. She said she had been raped, kidnapped, and possibly drugged, adding she didn't know where she was, according to France Bleu.

France's Alliance Police, the Court of Marseille, and the Court of Marseille's prosecution did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

After police were notified, they eventually got in touch with the girl and used Snapchat to identify the building she was in, according to France 3. Police knocked on every apartment door in the building until the girl was able to message officers that she heard the officers' knock, Rudy Manna, the departmental secretary of the Alliance Police union, told France Bleu.

Manna said police might not have found her without Snapchat, according to France 3.

Snapchat has a feature called "Snap Map" that allows users to display their location so others can see it.

"Only the people you choose can see your location — you can choose to share your location with all your friends you've added back, just a group of select friends, or you can even turn on Ghost Mode when you want to go off the grid," according to Snapchat's description of the feature.

Police arrived and arrested the two men on Friday, BFM Marseille reported. The Marseille prosecutor said in a press release that an investigation was opened against the men, according to France 3.