Searches underway in hunt for missing girls

A series of searches has got underway in Cambridgeshire tonight as new evidence emerged into the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

A school caretaker and his girlfriend were tonight being questioned separately by police about the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Ian Huntley, 28, and his partner Maxine Carr, 25, had agreed with police to give witness statements and were at police stations elsewhere in the county.

Officers were also searching the pair's house in the girls’ home village of Soham in Cambridgeshire.

A team of nine scenes of crime officers arrived at the house in a police van with blacked out windows and filed into the two-storey house.

The house was one of the last places the 10-year-olds were seen on the day they went missing.

Mr Huntley told reporters last week he saw the girls on the day they disappeared.

Police are also searching the local school, Soham Village College, and tonight extended the search to include St Andrew’s Primary School, which the girls attended.

Police were using highly sensitive equipment but would not go into further detail. A police helicopter also hovered over the school’s playing fields.

A senior police source anticipated the searches would take days rather than hours.