A student has been missing for five days tweeted about being stalked by a "creepy man", who followed her and a friend to a pub shortly before the 20-year-old vanished.
The disappearance of Megan Roberts, a student at York St John, has sparked a manhunt, with police saying they are now searching the River Ouse. The fine arts student was last seen in the Popworld nightclub on George Hudson Street in York city centre in the early hours of 23 January.
20-year-old Megan was last seen in a nightclub last Thursday
Police reviewing CCTV footage of the nearby area traced Megan to the corner of Rougier Street near Lendal Bridge at around 2.20am, where she was with a group of people. The group were seen a short time later at the other side of Lendal Bridge, on Museum Street but Megan was not with them.
On 16 January Megan visited two pubs with a friend, and tweeted:
She then continued to retweet her friend's account of the incident:
North Yorkshire Police say they are aware of the tweets. Superintendent Phil Cain added: "We are exploring with friends who are aware of a Twitter message, which was commenting around a male in a bar where Megan was at the time.
"Friends are convinced there was nothing to suggest Megan was being stalked at that stage. We do not believe that is connected to Megan's disappearance.
"At this moment in time there's no suggestion of any criminality whatsoever and we are treating this as a missing from home."
Megan is described as white, around 5ft 6in tall, of medium build with long dark brown hair. When she was last seen she was wearing a cream knee length dress which had large brown and orange flowers on it and black plimsoll type shoes.
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Cain said: "We are a very concerned for Megan's welfare and are urging the public to help us establish her movements in the early hours of Thursday 23 January 2014.
"As with all missing persons enquiries we are doing everything we can to locate Megan and make sure she is safe and well.
"Her disappearance and the fact that she has not had any contact with her family and friends for almost five days now is extremely unlike her and adds to our concern.
"Megan's family are understandably very distressed by her disappearance and I would appeal for anyone who has any information at all about where she might be to get in touch with the police as soon as possible."
Officers from the regional underwater search unit and specialist search officers from North Yorkshire Police are conducting riverbank searches along the River Ouse in York city centre on Tuesday.
Information from the public - or from Megan herself - can be passed on free of charge and in confidence by calling 116 000.