Church service to pray for missing April Jones as family friend is charged with murder

Police are doubling their efforts recruiting 100 specialist officers to join the search for missing five-year-old April Jones.

Mark Bridger was arrested the day after April went missing from near her home in Machynlleth, mid Wales.

Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Constable Jackie Roberts said the inquiry had been one of the "most complex and fast moving" in the history of the force "and one our communities have never had to face before".

Hundreds of people gathered on the estate where April disappeared and made their way towards St Peter's Church, where friends and neighbours of April's family today attended a special church service to pray for the return of the five-year-old girl.

Bridger, 46, who was questioned by detectives over four days and is thought to be a friend of April’s father, will appear before Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court charged with the abduction and murder of April.