Border combed for missing schoolboy

Search intensified after teenager's shoes were found

The search for a missing County Tyrone teenager has ended for the day after extending to both sides of the Irish border.

Brendan Rushe, 15, was last seen outside a nightclub in Donegal town in the Republic of Ireland in the early hours of Monday morning.

He vanished after leaving friends at a disco saying he was going to catch a later bus home.

The search is due to resume at first light on Friday, with police dogs to be used in the search along the quayside in Donegal town.

On Thursday, more than one hundred soldiers from the Parachute regiment and the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment, as well as police officers, combed the northern side of the border.

Brendan Rushe has been missing since Monday

About 200 people from the boy's home town of Castlederg have helped police search bogland in County Donegal.

Local priest Father Jim McGonagle, who spoke to Brendan's parents, said: "They are hoping against hope that he may be somewhere, that he might have become disorientated and that he may have ended up away with someone.

"But at the same time there is a grave fear that he won't return safely."

The Rushe family have called on the Irish army to join the search operation.

Brendan's mother, Collette, said the family had no idea where he went after leaving his friends.

"It is totally out of character for Brendan to stay away from home.

"We are always aware of where he was going, who he was going with and what time he was coming home."

She added: "I do not expect to find him alive now. I would just like to find him at this stage."

His father added: "We would like to appeal to any farmers or anybody in the country areas to check everywhere, such as barns or outhouses."

Colette Rushe: "Family are very distraught"

On Wednesday, a garda sub-aqua unit searched Lough Mourne in Donegal and a feeder river near to where a pair of shoes, his mother said were Brendan's, were discovered.

And a coastguard helicopter scoured the Donegal coastline, although it was forced to return to base on Wednesday morning because of high winds.

Superintendent John McFadden said: "The last sighting of him was by a member of the gardai who was speaking to him on Monday morning.

"Gardai actually spoke to him on two occasions that morning. They found him very friendly and nice and had no complaints about him."

He added: "He said he was going to get a bus home."

Brendan is 5ft 8in tall, of slim build and has dark brown short hair and brown eyes. He has braces on his teeth.

He was wearing a cream shirt, grey trousers and black shoes and had a black jumper with him when he went missing.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the police at Castlederg on 028 81671202.