Woman sees missing girls 'larking around'

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were spotted laughing and "larking around" together the morning after they went missing, police searching for the 10-year-olds said yesterday.

As attempts to find the girls intensified, the sighting of the girls eight miles from their village in the Cambridgeshire fens gave hope to their parents, but there were also fears the children had been abducted or fallen into one of the area's fast-flowing drains.

David Beckham, whose replica shirts the girls were wearing, made an appeal yesterday for the pair to return. He said: "Please go home. You're not in any kind of trouble. Your parents love you deeply and want you back." The girls disappeared onSunday evening when they apparently went to buy sweets in Soham.

The police said yesterday they were confident that the sighting of the girls on the A10 from Ely to Cambridge early on Monday was reliable. Tina-Marie Easey said she had seen the girls near Little Thetford at 6.45am.

Their parents spent Monday night helping police search in the rain. Kevin Wells said: "It's been probably the worst night so far. Friends and family searching, for shallow graves. It does not get any more difficult than that."