Fred West: Excavation work starts in Mary Bastholm search

Forensics officers have arrived in the centre of Gloucester to begin excavation work at The Clean Plate

Police searching for a suspected victim of serial killer Fred West have begun excavation work at a cafe.

Teenager Mary Bastholm, who worked at the Pop-In Cafe in Gloucester, went missing in 1968.

Earlier this month, a TV production company filming at the site - now called The Clean Plate - reported finding blue material buried.

Gloucestershire Police said experts are focusing on six areas underneath a toilet floor.

Officers arrived at about 08:00 BST to start the excavation work, which a senior officer said would be carried out "carefully and painstakingly" and could take at least two weeks to complete.

• Fred West: Who was he and what did he do?

Mary Bastholm went missing after going to catch a bus near the Pop-In Cafe where she worked

The discovery of blue material, spotted after the production company inserted a camera in a hole they had drilled, prompted police to carry out their own surveys of the cellar.

The 15-year-old was wearing a blue jacket, blue and white dress and was carrying a blue bag when she went missing in January 1968.

Det Ch Insp John Turner said Gloucestershire Police had carried out their own analysis and discovered six "voids or anomalies" which were at a maximum of half a metre under the toilet floor.

The excavations at the Clean Plate could take at least two weeks police have said

Archaeologists and anthropologists are involved in the search and would work on each anomaly in turn, he added.

The last sighting of Miss Bastholm was as she waited to catch a bus on Bristol Road.

No trace of her has ever been found, but West's son Stephen told police his father admitted to killing her.

The disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm in Gloucester in 1968 has been linked to murderer Fred West

West, who took his own life in 1995 before he could stand trial for the murders of 12 women and girls, was a regular at the cafeteria.

Det Ch Insp Turner said it had become part of Gloucester folklore that Miss Bastholm was buried in the cafe, but that his job was to "search for the truth".

He said: "That's why we're here now, on behalf of Mary's family, to look in the basement and find out what is in there."

At the scene: Andrew Plant, BBC News

After standing undisturbed for several days there has now been signs that work here inside the white tent in front of the cafe is under way.

Two vans arrived this morning and police officers in face masks carried bags inside.

It's been 10 days since the tent first appeared here but now police say this search could take several weeks more, as forensic archaeologists explore voids detected below the cellar floor and a piece of blue material photographed inside - the same colour as the coat Mary was wearing when she disappeared.

The name of Fred West is now back on everyone's mind in Gloucester.

Members of the public are stopping to look at the tent as they pass by - many of whom say they remember the initial investigation into the West's crimes when his murders were first uncovered in the 1990s.