Austrian authorities have initiated legal procedures to give new identities to Josef Fritzl's entire family after the family's decision to turn down lucrative offers for media interviews.

New identities have been prepared for Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, and the six surviving children she had by Josef, her father, during the 24 years she spent in a home-made dungeon under the family home in Amstetten.

Her six adult siblings and their mother, Rosemarie, 68, have also been offered new identities, the state broadcaster ORF reported.

The various family members and their representatives have been besieged by offers from broadcasters and newspapers - especially British tabloids. Offers are said to have topped a million euros.

Christoph Herbst, the lawyer representing the family, told The Times: “I am receiving many offers from various international media but it is not in the family’s best interest to go public.

"The medical staff in charge of their therapy have emphasised the importance of protecting the family’s privacy which is a prerequisite for their successful recovery. Being exposed in the public is the last thing they need at this stage.”

Fritzl, a 73-year-old electrical engineer and property developer, took Elisabeth captive in 1984 and imprisoned her in his home-made dungeon in the cellar. During decades of sexual abuse he fathered seven children with her, including a baby boy who died three days after his birth and whose body was burnt in an incinerator.

He selected three of the children to live with him and his wife in their upstairs home, while the other three were never allowed to leave the subterranean prison.

Fritzl’s actions came to light only after the oldest child with his daughter had to be taken to a hospital with a mysterious life-threatening condition on April 19. She was put into an artificial coma following a multiple organ failure, but her condition has since improved and she is expected to wake up in the course of the next few weeks.

Elisabeth Fritzl, as well as her other children and her mother Rosemarie, are also recovering well under the care of a multi-expert team of doctors, psychiatrists and therapists in the Amstetten-Mauer Regional Hospital. They are reportedly making a good progress and have been “coming together” as a family during the joint therapy sessions.

Mr Herbst complained, however, that the family were “locked-up for the second time” as they were unable to leave the clinic because dozens of paparazzi photographers and reporters who have “virtually besieged” the hospital since the arrival of the Fritzls on April 27.

Police, firefighters and a private security company officers with dogs are guarding the hospital around the clock following several violent incidents when photographers and TV crews tried to force their way into the building where the family are being treated.

Mr Herbst said: “The children who grew up in the cellar and had never daylight are incredibly curious about everything and would like to go out and experience the outside world. They have never felt rain or fresh air. But they are forced to stay in their ward because of the many paparazzi that have literally besieged the hospital.”

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