Manhunt after robber snatches cleaner

A HUGE MANHUNT was under way last night after a school cleaner was abducted from a remote Scottish primary school yesterday afternoon. The woman apparently disturbed a robber, writes Marianne Macdonald.

The abduction of Catherine Inkson took place after the school's acting head teacher was bound and gagged. She managed to free herself and raise the alarm before her car was used to drive the cleaner away.

A police helicopter was scouring the Highland region of Easter Ross, where road blocks were also in place, in an attempt to stop the man who abducted the cleaner from Scotsburn primary school, near Tain, north of Inverness, in a red

F-registered Seat Ibiza.

The teacher, Rhona Sim, was deputising for the headmistress Carol Duff, when she was attacked. Last night she was too shaken to speak. A divisional education officer, Alan Forsyth, said at the scene she was 'in a state of shock'.

Last night police were working on the theory that Ms Inkson had disturbed a robber. He had apparently broken the back-door window, which was being checked for fingerprints.