Missing pensioners 'safe and well'

Three British pensioners reported missing in France have been located safe and well, the Foreign Office said today.

Roy and Alice Houghton, 78 and 80, from Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire, had not been heard of since Saturday after driving to the South of France with Mrs Houghton's brother, Walter Sheppard, 77, from Nottingham.

Bedfordshire Police appealed for help yesterday in tracing them and French police launched a search.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that the three are safe. We have been in touch with the family."

Mr Houghton's son, Pete, who was waiting for a phone call from his father at the family home, said: "Our worst fear was that they had been carjacked and were lying dead somewhere in a French barn and that a drug addict was using their credit card.

"That's the sort of thing that runs through your mind."

He said they were staying in a village three miles away from their destination and that they had rented a villa. The person they had rented it from had recognised them and contacted the police.