Police believe missing girls are still alive

Police believe the missing 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have been abducted and are still alive.

They say the pair are likely to be in the area near their home town of Soham, Cambridgeshire because most abductors strike near their own homes. But Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb, a senior officer in the investigation, said: "It's quite possible that they're anywhere in the UK or even abroad."

Officers said the girls' computers had thrown up "significant" potential leads. Both girls were known to be familiar with e-mail and detectives are particularly interested in a half-hour period they spent on the internet shortly before they disappeared on Sunday evening.

Criminal psychologists working with the 230-strong investigation team have helped police build a picture of the type of man who could be holding the girls .

Yesterday, police released photographs taken on Jessica's recent family holiday to Minorca to try to prick any abductor's conscience. "Don't let these pictures become some of the last pictures that family has to remember Jessica by," said Detective Superintendent David Hankins.

He added: "We are working on experience from elsewhere and believe the two girls are still alive."

Asked whether he thought the girls might have known their abductor, he said: "We have had no report of girls being bundled into a van kicking and screaming. There is also a possibility there was more than one abductor."