Sarah Everard: Police search drains in Clapham in hunt for missing 33-year-old

Police investigating the disappearance of Sarah Everard are searching drains and a pond in Clapham.

The 33-year-old has not been seen or heard from since leaving her friend’s house in South London at around 9pm on Wednesday and her family say “it is totally out of character for her to disappear like this”.

On Tuesday, officers could be seen checking drains while a team of divers scoured a pond on Clapham Common.

"In any missing persons case people are extremely concerned - there's a lot of uncertainty, you don't know if the person has gone off the grid or whether something untoward has happened," said Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.

"People are rightfully worried because they just don't know what's happened and obviously we hope nothing untoward has happened to Sarah and that she is found safe and sound - but the longer we go with no information the more worried people become," she added.

Friends and relatives have issued urgent appeals on social media to help find Sarah, footage from a doorbell camera shows her walking along the A205 Poynders Road towards Tulse Hill at around 9.30pm that night.

On Tuesday two police officers with sniffer dogs were seen searching outside the nearby Oaklands Estate and gardens in surrounding streets.

Other officers were lifting covers and searching drains along the A205.

Ms Everard left her friend’s flat in Leathwaite Road in Clapham at around 9pm on to the A205 South Circular and is thought to have walked through Clapham Common towards her house in Brixton in a journey which should have taken around 50 minutes.

Her family have said it is “totally out of character” for her to disappear like this.

Women living in the area near where she vanished told reporters they had been warned by police to be extra vigilant.

Scotland Yard said no official advice was being given to local residents, but it would remind them of “normal personal safety advice”.

Investigators are not currently linking the disappearance to reports of women being followed in surrounding areas.

Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who is leading the Metropolitan Police’s investigation, provided an update on efforts to find Ms Everard on Monday afternoon.

She said: “This is definitely a missing persons investigation at the moment but I remain open-minded as to all possibilities in the investigation.”

DCI Goodwin said search efforts were continuing “at pace”.

She said: “We are currently knocking on doors. We’ve spoken to over 750 different people and addresses have been visited.

“We continue to receive hundreds of calls from the public. We’ve received over a hundred calls so far.”

She said police had reviewed hours of CCTV around Ms Everard’s movements on the night she was last seen.