QUEBEC - A young boy who was kidnapped and dumped inside an old oil heating tank before being found by police is coming to terms with his ordeal, his brother said Thursday.

"He's taking some medication, he's been examined," the boy's brother told Radio-Canada, the CBC's French-language network. "He's getting better. He's strong."

Pierre Defoy, 50, has been charged with kidnapping, kidnapping a child under 14 and illegal confinement.

The accused will remain behind bars until a bail hearing Friday and police say it's possible other charges may be laid.

The brother said he didn't go to Defoy's arraignment Wednesday. Other members of the family did but found it difficult.

"I didn't go because I was too angry," said the brother, who was not identified to protect the boy's identity. "My mother - it was a shock for her to see him."

The incident began Tuesday evening in Levis, just across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City, when a man stopped his vehicle and grabbed the eight-year-old boy who was playing with some friends on their bicycles.

"He was grabbed around the head," the brother said. "His head was trapped in (the kidnapper's) arm."

He say the man put the boy in the trunk and quickly drove off as astonished witnesses looked on.

An alert citizen in Quebec City spotted the man taking the boy out of the trunk and into an apartment building.

Police were called, entered the building and arrested a man.

The boy, who lives on the same street as the accused, was discovered bound and gagged in an old heating oil tank in the basement, police said.

They said the child had been placed in the three-metre-long cylinder and the cover had been bolted shut.

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