Police test Claudia pub 'items'

Ms Lawrence often socialised at the Nag's Head pub

Detectives investigating the suspected murder of York chef Claudia Lawrence have confirmed they are examining items removed from her local pub.

Eleven officers conducted a "detailed search" of the Nag's Head in Heworth Road lasting seven hours on Wednesday.

It has been reported that they took away bed sheets which had been on a mattress with a small bloodstain on it.

North Yorkshire Police said they could not discuss those details but said some items were undergoing forensic tests.

One of the landlords of the pub, Simon Foreman, told BBC News that he willingly let officers in to search accommodation above the pub.

He said the bloodstain on the mattress "may have been there for years".

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said the items retrieved from the pub had been sent to the Forensic Science Service Laboratory at Wetherby for analysis.

He could not say when any test results might be available.

The pub opened for business again on Wednesday night.

The pub, which is just a few doors away from Ms Lawrence's home in Heworth Road, had previously been searched by police on 28 March, 10 days after the 35-year-old was last seen.

The police investigation, the largest in North Yorkshire since the search for multiple killer Mark Hobson in 2004, began when she failed to arrive for work at York University.

Detectives are now treating the case as suspected murder.

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Ms Lawrence was last seen on 18 March