TWO 12-year-old girls who sparked a major police search when they vanished for three days after leaving their Crewe school have been found safe and well by police.

Concern mounted for the safety of Lily Price and Rebecca Revel when they disappeared after finishing lessons at Shavington High School at 3.20pm on Wednesday.

The pair failed to return to their families in Winterley and the police were alerted.

Officers from Crewe issued an urgent appeal through the Press in a bid to jog people's memories.

Enquiries with the pair's family and friends failed to shed any light on their possible whereabouts but police believed they may have travelled to the Crewe, Sandbach or Haslington areas.

After an agonising wait, officers located them within four hours of one another on Saturday.

Lily was found by an officer walking around Crewe town centre at 4.45pm before a police patrol discovered Rebecca at 8pm in the Derby Docks area of Crewe.

A police spokeswoman said: 'The two 12-year-old girls from the Crewe area have now been found safe and well.

'We were very worried because of their age and they were very vulnerable.'

Shavington School headteacher, Robert Knight, said everyone was relieved that the girls were safe.