Kent Police confirmed yesterday that a man and woman whose disappearance from a cross-Channel ferry sparked an international air and sea search were found in Belgium yesterday and have been contacted by telephone.

The couple who are in their early 20s failed to board their coach as it prepared to disembark from a Dover-Calais ferry.

The crew of the P&O ferry Pride of Kent requested a sea search at around 3am yesterday, having searched the ship twice. The seven-hour sea search involved the Coastguard, the RNLI and the French Navy.

The pair had bought one-way tickets for the Eurobusexpress coach service from London to Brussels shortly before it departed Victoria Coach Station at 9pm on Sunday.
It emerged last night that they had parked their car in Calais and persuaded a truck driver to take them off the ship to their car without informing their coach driver.

P&O spokesman Brian Rees said: “It appears as if they got themselves to Calais by car, left the car at Calais and then came to the UK.

“They got a truck driver to take them off the ship but they didn’t tell their coach driver, who was left with the impression he had two passengers missing.

A Kent Police spokesman said last night: “Two people who were reported missing after getting on a ferry to France are tonight believed to be safe and well in Europe.”