Falklands arrests over missing marine Two arrested over Falklands marine

British detectives were yesterday questioning four men on the Falkland Islands in connection with the unsolved disappearance of a teenage Royal Marine 15 years ago. The team from Devon and Cornwall police flew 8,000 miles to the islands earlier this month to reopen the case of 19-year- old Alan Addis.

A force spokesman said that army Chinook helicopters were used in the arrest of two of the men on suspicion of murder, with two other arrests taking place some hours later . The men were detained with the help of members of the 17-strong Falklands police force, in an operation authorised by the Falklands Attorney General.

They are being held at a special custody centre on the island, where facilities to tape and video interviews have been set up by technicians flown out from Britain.

Addis, a member of a six-man party of marines sent to train the local defence force volunteers, vanished 15 years ago at the remote settlement of North Arm after a social event. His body has never been found and an open verdict was recorded at an inquest. It is understood that those arrested were at the social event on the night the marine disappeared.

New information emerged after repeated screenings on Falklands television of an emotional video appeal from the missing marine's widowed mother, Ann Addis, 53, from Humberside.

In the video she said she wanted to end the "living nightmare" of her son's disappearance on 8 August 1980. Mrs Addis said yesterday she had "lots and lots of hope" after hearing of the developments.

Mrs Addis visited the Falklands in February and March to monitor progress by Falklands police. Her first trip to the islands took place in 1981, the year after her son disappeared. She said she accepted long ago her son was dead, but wanted the facts "so I can put an end to this mystery which hangs over my life like a black cloud".

Her long campaign led the Falklands police to ask the West Country force, which has training links with Falklands police, to reopen the case.