TWO people who were reported missing in the early hours of yesterday morning after getting on a ferry to France are today safe and well in Europe.

Officers from Kent Police are confident they have located the two people, a man and a woman aged between 20 and 25.

The alarm had been raised when the couple didn’t get back on a coach they had travelled on when it arrived in Calais.

Police are now in the process of confirming their identities after managing to talk to both of them on the telephone in Belgium.

British and French Coastguard authorities had launched a sea search for them after they had been reported missing from the P&O cross-Channel ferry, the Pride of Kent.

The alarm was raised at 2.40am yesterday when the Captain of the ferry said two passengers from a coach party had failed to report to disembark.

The crew carried out a thorough search of the ship twice, but didn't find anyone.

Dover Coastguard then contacted the French authorities at Cape Gris Nez and a nine-hour search was carried out over a large area of the Channel.

The search involved Dover, Calais and Boulogne lifeboats, the Coastguard tug Anglian Monarch, the Coastguard spotter plane Echo November, two French helicopters and a French Navy Frigate.