A photograph of a smiling and waving Cleo Smith eating an ice pole in her hospital bed has been released by Western Australia police after the four-year-old was rescued from a Carnarvon house more than two weeks after she vanished.

WA police on Wednesday afternoon said a 36-year-old man taken into custody following Cleo’s discovery was yet to be charged but they expected that to occur “probably” later in the day.

Investigators have said the man had no connection to Cleo’s family and he only became a suspect in the alleged abduction on Tuesday night.

In a press conference outside the Carnarvon police station on Wednesday afternoon, the commissioner, Chris Dawson, held up the picture of Cleo declaring “it is a wonderful day”.

The picture was taken earlier on Wednesday when Cleo was in hospital where she had been taken for medical tests.

She has since been discharged and is back with parents.

“It is a really special day for Western Australia,” Dawson said. “I’m just the proudest police commissioner I think in the world at the moment.”

Det Sgt Cameron Blaine, who was one of the four officers who raided the house in Carnarvon and was the one to ask Cleo what her name was, described the four-year-old as “very trusting and open” with officers. He also said she was energetic.

“She’s a little Energizer bunny,” he said. “How she has that much energy, I wish I did. We all wanted to take turns holding her.”

Blaine said Wednesday morning was “the best moment” of his career. He described the moment Cleo was reunited with her family and said the four-year-old exclaimed “mum”.

There were “big hugs, kisses and lots of tears,” Blaine said.

Det Supt Rod Wilde, who led the investigation, said Wednesday morning’s news came as an “absolute surprise” to Cleo’s parents and “they were ecstatic”.

Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, posted on Instagram about 6am local time about her daughter’s discovery with the caption “our family is whole again”.

Dawson said chocolates and flowers had been left at the police station throughout Wednesday.

The WA police minister, Paul Papalia, said: “If you feel the need to thank God today, thank God for the West Australian police force. Cleo’s rescue wasn’t the result of an accidental sighting or a suspicious event, it was the result of hard police grind from the moment this incident began.”

Police officers found Cleo about 1am local time on Wednesday morning alone in a room at a house in Carnarvon, a town roughly 900 km north of Perth on WA’s north-west coast, and just 75km from where her family was camping when she disappeared from their tent in the early hours of 16 October.