Fred West: Cellar search continues in Mary Bastholm search

The image of the cafe's cellar was released by police on Thursday

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

Mary Bastholm, 15, who worked at the Pop-In Cafe in Gloucester, went missing in 1968.

Police started excavating the cellar on Wednesday after finding "possible evidence" suggesting her body might be buried there.

Gloucestershire Police said experts were focusing on six areas beneath a toilet floor.

The noise of power drills could be heard coming from inside the cafe, now called The Clean Plate, on Southgate Street and contractors have been seen unloading other equipment, such as shovels.

Police released a picture of the cafe's cellar, where excavation work is expected to take at least two weeks to complete.

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

Fred West apparently told his son he had killed Mary Bastholm, but police said West "told a lot of lies" during the 1994 investigation

Earlier this month, a TV production company filming at the site reported finding blue material buried.

The discovery, spotted by crew who inserted a camera in a hole they had drilled, prompted police to carry out their own surveys.

Miss Bastholm was wearing a blue jacket, blue and white dress and was carrying a blue bag when she went missing.

Det Ch Insp John Turner said Gloucestershire Police had discovered six "voids or anomalies" at a maximum depth of about half a metre below the toilet floor.

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

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

The last sighting of Miss Bastholm was as she waited to catch a bus on Bristol Road in January 1968.

Fred and his wife Rosemary West tortured, raped and murdered an unknown number of women over a 20-year period from 1967 to 1987.

Fred West reportedly confessed to his son Stephen that he had killed Miss Bastholm but he never admitted it to police.

Detectives have recently spoken to Stephen West, Mr Turner said.

Fred West took his own life in 1995 before he could stand trial for the murders of 12 women and girls.