A frantic search is underway after a five-year-old girl playing on her bicycle with a friend near her home was last night abducted by a stranger.

Police and hundreds of residents searched through the night for April Jones, who was taken into a van in the town of Machynlleth in Wales.

Officers were today comforting her distressed parents Coral, 40, and Paul, 43, who were said to be ‘besides themselves with worry’.

Detectives said they were becoming 'increasingly concerned' for the girl, who disappeared in the grey or light-coloured vehicle at around 7pm.

Roadblocks were set up and a 25-mile radius search was launched, while officers spoke to April’s friend - the only witness to the abduction.

Det Supt Reg Bevan of Dyfed-Powys Police said detectives were also interviewing April’s other friends, in what he called a ‘delicate process’.

A neighbour said: ‘She is the apple of her parent's eyes - in Welsh we call her “cariad bach”, a little darling. They are a lovely people who dote on April.’

More than 200 local people with torches assembled within an hour at the town's leisure centre after an appeal, and were led into the surrounding countryside to start searching.

The search was stood down at midnight but people returned to the police control centre at first light this morning to resume looking for April.