Danielle 'may have been abducted'

A home video of Danielle has been released

The detective leading the investigation to find Danielle Jones has said the missing Essex schoolgirl may have been abducted.

Detective Superintendent Peter Coltman told BBC News: "We have to confront the possibility that she hasn't run away, that she's been abducted, that she could be being held or something more serious may have happened.

"It's just a reflection on the fact that two weeks after she was last seen leaving her home to go to school we haven't had a single positive sighting and we haven't had anybody phone us up to say where she is."

Det Supt Coltman appealed for anyone who knows Danielle's whereabouts to contact police.

Devastated: Danielle's parents

"Danielle's mother and father are absolutely devastated by her disappearance," he added.

On Monday police stopped drivers, train commuters and pedestrians in Danielle's home village of East Tilbury to hand out 1,000 leaflets containing a photograph of Danielle, details of her school uniform and her mobile phone.

They hoped to jog the memory of anyone who may have seen her on the day she disappeared exactly two weeks previously.

The new tactic followed a police search of open land close to Danielle's home at the weekend, which was supported by hundreds of volunteers.

Land searches continue

Officers and dogs from Essex, Suffolk, Kent, Bedfordshire and the Metropolitan area, British Transport Police, the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue and the Ministry of Defence continue the hunt in fields, marshes and parks.

Danielle - who lives with her parents and younger brother - is 5ft 7in, slim, with blue eyes and long blonde hair and a brace on her teeth.