Police search property in missing chef case

Police investigating the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence have confirmed they have spent two days searching a house about 10 miles from her home as a result of a "recent development".

A team of around 20 officers, including divers, have been searching a house and the land around it in the village of Ellerton, East Yorkshire.

Ellerton is approximately 10 miles from the York suburb of Heworth, where Miss Lawrence lived alone.

Miss Lawrence, who was 35 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen near her home on March 18, last year, and failed to arrive for her job as a chef at the University of York the following morning.

The search is now understood to be finished and police would give no further details.

The house is the latest in a series police have searched in connection with Miss Lawrence's disappearance, which detectives are treating as a murder inquiry.