'Girl seen' near home of missing teenager

Two motorists have told police they saw a young girl in tears close to where the missing teenager Amanda Dowler was last seen more than two weeks ago.

The sightings were 10 minutes apart, shortly after the 13-year-old would have left a railway station in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March, to walk the mile to her home. Detectives have also received a report of a young girl who was seen talking to the driver of a blue Saab car near by. The developments are important because they potentially place her closer to home when she disappeared.

Police believe the teenager, known to her family as Milly, might have run away with, or been abducted by, someone she knew.

Meanwhile, a police search of a river where two boys claimed to have noticed a body, less than 10 miles from where Milly was last seen, was completed last night without a body being discovered.