Cavers join hunt for Charlotte

Police have been helped in their search by Dartmoor Rescue Group

Expert rescue groups are being called in to help in the search for missing North Devon teenager Charlotte Pinkney.

Dive teams who have been scouring two resevoirs near Ilfracombe have finished their search.

But the hunt has now been widened with help of Dartmoor Rescue and the Devon Cave Rescue Organisation.

The 17-year-old vanished in the early hours four weeks ago after a party at Burnside Road in the centre of the town.

Charlotte Pinkney vanished a week before her 17th birthday

Det Chief Insp Tony Carney, who is leading the search for the Charlotte has appealed to people living in hamlets outside Ilfracombe, such as Lincombe and Lee, to contact police if they saw anything suspicious on the night of Charlotte's disappearance.

She was reported missing on 4 March, having been dropped off by car at 0400 GMT on 28 February near the reservoirs at Slade on the outskirts of Ilfracombe.

Concerns were raised when she failed to make contact with her divorced parents on her 17th birthday, which was on 6 March, and police launched a murder hunt six days later when her handbag was found near Ilfracombe.

Police have previously searched the area around the Slade Reservoirs

The coast around Ilfracombe has been searched from land and air, posters have been put up around the town and house-to-house inquiries have been conducted.

Charlotte had been living with a boyfriend in Ilfracombe, and was described as 5 ft 2 in tall, with long dark brown waist-length hair.

She was last seen wearing a cream coat, a black T-shirt and checked trousers.

A 22-year-old Ilfracombe man was arrested in connection with her disappearance on 7 March but was released on police bail two days later.

Police have renewed their appeal to trace a red Vauxhall Cavalier seen driving along the High Street in Ilfracombe at about 0530 GMT on 28 February.