Pensioners 'may have changed plans'

The families of three pensioners who have apparently vanished on a trip to France are desperately hoping that the group have changed their plans at the last minute.

The three have not been seen for nine days but one of their credit cards has been used during that time.

Roy and Alice Houghton and her brother Walter Shepherd had embarked on a six-week trip to the south of France but failed to arrive at the apartment they booked.

Mr Houghton, 78, of Bedfordshire, phoned his son that day to say they were in Perpignan, an hour from their final destination of Collioure. But Mr Houghton, his 80-year-old wife and Mr Shepherd, 77, a widower from Nottingham, failed to reach Collioure.

The owner of the apartment they were due to rent reported them missing and police forces on both sides of the Channel are now concerned for their safety.

The Houghtons' son, Peter, said: "I am very worried. I have not slept for days. It is not like them to get lost. Dad is very organised - he has a background in the military and the fire brigade. He is very reliable and trustworthy."

Bedfordshire police visited the couple's home in Houghton Regis last night in an attempt to gather more information about the couple. The three have visited the south of France before, their son said. "It is not as if they did not know what they were doing."

They took the ferry to France and then travelled south in the Houghtons' green Rover 800. Mr Houghton continued: "They rang on Saturday to say they were an hour away and to say that they were fine. The next thing I knew was when the landlady called me and said she had been waiting five hours for them."

He said the French police had told him the three had not been found in any hospitals.