Fears grow for university student, 20, who went missing after night out in York

Fears were growing last night for a university student who vanished five days ago after a night out with friends.
Megan Roberts, 20, was last seen at 2am on Thursday when she parted from the group outside a bar in York city centre.
The street where she was last seen is about a mile from the home of university chef Claudia Lawrence who disappeared almost five years ago and is believed by police to have been murdered.

Concern: Officers have launched an urgent search after the disappearance of Megan Roberts, 20, last week

Friends became increasingly worried about Megan as the week went on and contacted her mother, who reported her missing early yesterday morning.
The area where she was last seen is also close to the River Ouse, which has become fast-moving and swollen from recent heavy rains.
Police issued an alert yesterday afternoon, with a spokesman saying it was ‘very out of character’ for the York St John University fine arts student to go missing and officers were ‘very concerned for her safety.’
North Yorkshire Police said she went out last Wednesday night with friends and they stayed at the Popworld bar in George Hudson Street in York until about 2am.
‘They all then went their separate ways,’ said a police spokesman. Megan didn’t return home that night and hasn’t been in contact with friends or family since.
Police described her as a ‘prolific Facebooker’ and she has not been active on social media since Wednesday night.

Miss Robert's disappearance after a night out with friends has been described as 'out of character'

Friends repeatedly phoned and texted her but got no reply and eventually alerted her mother Jackie Roberts, who lives 10 miles away in Wetherby.
Her friend Rockie Alanah Thorley wrote on Facebook yesterday: ‘Her phone has been off since Wednesday night. We all assumed she went home for the weekend or went to see her ex and her phone had died.
‘When all her friends spoke last night and realised nobody had got in touch we became concerned as it is very out of character for her. So we contacted her mum.
‘She then didn’t turn up to her lecture this morning and we reported it. It’s been discovered that it is likely she didn’t go to her own house on Wednesday night.’
Megan has a younger brother and sister. Her mother Jackie wrote on Facebook: ‘Anyone with any info please get in touch. We’re worried sick.’
Claudia Lawrence was 35 when she vanished in March 2009. She returned home after finishing her shift at the University of York and spoke to both her father Peter Lawrence and mother Joan in separate phone conversations that evening.
She failed to turn up for her early morning shift the next day and was reported missing by her father on 20th March. She has never been seen or heard from since. Her rucksack containing her chef’s whites was missing from her house. Last October a police forensic team returned to her house on Heworth Road, York, as part of a cold case review.
In October 2007 the body of university student Robert Davies, 20, was found in the River Ouse in York. The third year chemistry student was last seen nine days earlier in an intoxicated state outside a nightclub.
Inspector Andy Farrar of North Yorkshire Police said officers were looking at CCTV footage from the area to find sightings of Megan.
‘At the moment it is purely a missing from home enquiry, there is nothing to suggest anything else. We are in the early stages of the investigation.

The 20-year-old from Wetherby is a student at York St John University, minutes away from where Claudia Lawrence went missing in March 2009

'We are searching the local area in relation to the places where she lives and who she was out with. We are doing the preliminary investigation and speaking to the last people she saw.’ ends
The student’s university friends contacted each other on Twitter on Sunday to discuss their concerns and ask each other if anyone had seen Megan.
One wrote about last Wednesday night: ‘I didn’t leave with her but she was with people when I left. I just don’t understand.’ A police spokeswoman said Megan was reported missing at 8.30am yesterday. She said: ‘Police are appealing for anyone who has seen Megan since the early hours of Thursday morning or knows where she is now, to contact them urgently.
‘They are also appealing to Megan herself to contact her friends, family or the police to let them know she is safe.’
Miss Roberts is described as 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 plimsolls-type shoes.