A TIRED tot sparked a police air and land search after she was reported missing - only to be found curled up asleep on a pub chair 90 minutes after the alarm was raised.

The police helicopter was called to look for a local five-year-old who was thought to have gone missing from The Tavern pub in Union Road, Oswaldtwistle.

But police said Laura Johnstone, of Sharples Street, Accrington, was eventually found safe and well inside the pub after at first being mistaken for a bundle of clothes.

Inspector Stephen Lee, of Accrington Police, said: "The helicopter was called out straight away because the missing girl was only five.

"When the pub was first searched somebody thought she was just a bundle of clothes on the chair."

Sgt John Kirkwood, of Lancashire Police's Air Support Unit, added: "It transpired she was asleep inside the pub and she had been in there all the time.

"The girl's parents were in the pub and we spoke to them. Unfortunately, the initial checking hadn't been done."

Local resident David Allen said: "We heard a loud speaker from the helicopter. We were just getting a group of people together to start looking when we heard she had been found."

A spokesman at The Tavern said the parents were not regular drinkers at the pub.

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