Fears after fourth man disappears

POLICE have started a search for a young man who vanished after a drunken night out - with the last trace of him being a woman's voice on his mobile saying she would get him home.

Delivery driver Vincent Zecca, 19, had been out with friends at the weekend in the centre of Bordeaux but his girlfriend raised the alarm when he did not return home. He is the fourth man to vanish after a night out in the city since last summer.

He and Laurianne exchanged several texts during the evening and, after a call around 1.30 when she knew he had drunk a lot he said would be back in "half an hour".

When he did not arrive she tried to call him several times and, around 3.15, a woman replied on his mobile saying he was drunk on the ground, only a few hundred metres from the restaurant.

Laurianne and the unknown woman talked about the best way to get him home, such as sending a taxi, and then the woman said she would "handle it".

Police were called in on Sunday lunchtime after Laurianne had again called Vincent's mobile and this time it was answered by a jogger who had found his jacket, covered in vomit, in Place de la Bourse near the Garonne river.

It still contained his keys, wallet and mobile but not his bank card - and police discovered there had been several attempts to use it that morning.

Now police have appealed for witnesses and started checking CCTV records at banks and in the city as part of a major investigation.

Last month another young man also vanished after a drunken night out in Bordeaux, and two other men disappeared on July 27 and December 2. Police said they were not yet linking the inquiries.