Couple Found in Belgium After Vanishing From Ferry

A couple whose disappearance from a cross-Channel ferry sparked a seven-hour air and sea rescue operation covering hundreds of square miles were found in Belgium last night.

The man and woman, in their early 20s, were reported missing by their coach driver when they failed to show up as the Pride of Kent docked in Calais.

Staff searched the boat, and emergency services in France and England launched a search involving lifeboats, a coastguard tug, a helicopter, an aeroplane and the French navy. Rescue crews spent several hours scouring the Channel but found no trace of the pair and the operation was called off around midday.

But after a joint operation by UK, French and Belgian authorities it appeared the couple, thought to be Belgian, had left the ferry by another means.

Last night a spokesman for Kent police confirmed the couple had been found in Belgium. "Two people who were reported missing in the early hours of this morning after getting on a ferry to France are tonight believed to be safe and well in Europe," he said. "Officers from Kent police are confident they've located the two people, a man and a woman aged between 20 and 25 ... Police are now in the process of confirming their identities after managing to talk to both of them on the telephone in Belgium."

It emerged last night that the pair had persuaded a truck driver to take them off the ship and drive them to their car in Calais without informing their coach driver on board the ferry.

P&O spokesman Brian Rees said: "It appears as if they got themselves to Calais by car, left the car at Calais and then came to the UK. On the way back, they took a coach and when they docked at Calais all they wanted to do was to collect their car. They got a truck driver to take them off the ship to pick their car up but they didn't tell their coach driver, who was left with the impression that he had two passengers missing. To not tell your coach driver that you were being taken off the ship by other means has had very serious consequences."

A UK coastguard spokesman added: "The search operation has cost thousands of pounds but we would never put a cost on a human life."