Missing French girls found in West End

Two French girls who went missing in London three days ago and were feared to have been kidnapped were found yesterday.

Scotland Yard said Laetitia Ranson, 16, and Anjelique Wozniak, 15, had been found in the West End and officers were going to interview them.

Mystery still surrounds what happened to the girls during their 50-hour disappearance. Police would not say where the girls had been or in what condition they were.

A large police operation was launched after the girls disappeared on Wednesday afternoon at Selfridges, in Oxford Street.

A team of 15 detectives, backed by uniformed officers carrying photographs of the girls, combed the area. Earlier yesterday their distraught parents appealed for help in finding them. They feared they may have been kidnapped after becoming separated from their friends.

Anjelique's father, Noel Wozniak, 45, said it was out of character for the girls to go off on their own.

They were unused to big cities and had rarely been away from their home village of Grenay, near Lille.