Fresh clues in hunt for girls

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Detectives today released fresh details of the last known movements of the two 10-year-old girls missing in Cambridgeshire since Sunday.

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were seen a number of times near their home in Soham, Cambridgeshire, between 5pm and 7pm on Sunday, police said.

Details of the new sightings were revealed shortly after police released CCTV pictures apparently showing the girls walking through a sports centre car park.

Detective Superintendent David Hankins revealed that the police were checking more than a dozen reported sightings of the youngsters who appeared to be wandering around the centre of Soham.

He said Jessica was seen by a woman who knew her near a chip shop in the high street at around 5pm on Sunday.

Shortly before 5.05pm the girls were photographed in Holly's lounge wearing the red Manchester United shirts they were dressed in when they disappeared.

Between 5.11pm and 5.35pm police say checks have shown that the computer at Holly's house was being used - almost certainly by the girls.

At 5.45pm a caretaker at a local school who knew the girls saw them near the school.

At 6.15pm they were reported to have been seen in the lower end of the high street near a Rover garage.

Minutes after that they were captured on CCTV walking through the car-park of the nearby Ross Peers Sports Centre.

At 6.30pm police say there were four separate sightings of them walking in the high street towards the centre of Soham.

At about the same time there was also a reported sighting of them in the gym at the Ross Peers Sports Centre.

Fifteen minutes later police had four more sightings which show they were near the war memorial in the village.

At 7pm police have a report of them being seen walking near a roundabout which is close to a garage on the main road at the southern end of Soham.

That spot is where the village ends and the road leads to Newmarket.

"Some of these sightings we can confirm because they were either seen by a

number of people who knew them or were captured on tape," said Mr Hankins.

"The sighting at seven o'clock at the roundabout near the garage has not yet been confirmed.

"We are working on trying to either confirm that or rule it out by checking to see if there are any CCTV cameras on which they would have been captured.

"We need to hear from anyone who thinks they might have seen these girls or who can provide us with more information.

"We know that four people were captured walking through the sports centre car-park by the same camera which captured the girls at about 6.17pm.

"We also know there was a motor cyclist in that car-park and we have had reports of a white van which was loading or unloading.

"We need all those people to contact us straight away so we can ascertain whether they can give us any important witness evidence."

He said officers investigating the girls disappearance had received "hundreds and hundreds" of calls from members of the public.

And those calls were being sifted and prioritised.