Student safe but mystery remains

After four days of searching and worrying, the friends and family of Victoria Stephenson were delighted to hear she had presented herself to Irish police yesterday morning.

The 19-year-old had been missing for four days since failing to meet friends on Tuesday night. She had been going to interview a homeless person for her studies as a first-year sociology student at Manchester Metropolitan University. The high-profile, large-scale search for her ended at around 10am yesterday when she declared her identity to Dublin police.

Within minutes the missing teenager was put in touch on the telephone with her best friend Alice Jackson, who confirmed her identity before calling the student's parents to say: "It's her. She's alive."

"We are absolutely over the moon," said a statement released by members of her family as they prepared to cross the Irish Sea to meet her. "What better Christmas present could we have than to know she is safe and well? We have spoken to her only briefly on the telephone and are looking forward to seeing her."

They praised Manchester police and thanked members of the media for helping with the search.

The Vice Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, Alexandra Burslem, said: "Staff and students have been frantic for the past two days and this is the best possible news."

However, the mystery of why and how she went to Ireland remains. Detective Superintendent Peter Minshall of Greater Manchester police said officers would be travelling to Dublin. "We don't yet know any of the full circumstances as to why Vicky is in Dublin. We are obviously going over there to see if there are issues for the police, and her family will be going as well."

More than 40 police officers were involved in the hunt which had seen them searching wasteland along the three-mile route she should have taken from the university campus into the city centre. "I can't imagine her just wandering off," said her mother, Margaret, who had travelled from London to Manchester to help with the search. Fears rose when the student failed to respond to calls and text messages to her mobile phone.