Police fear missing woman has "come to harm"

LONDON (Reuters) - Detectives hunting for a woman who has been missing from her home for a week said on Wednesday they feared she had probably "come to harm" and might have been abducted by someone she knew.

Chef Claudia Lawrence, 35, has not been seen since last Wednesday afternoon when she was spotted walking to her home in York and then spoke to her mother at about 8:30 p.m. that evening.

Police said she had been in good spirits and there had been nothing to indicate that she might vanish.

"I must be concerned that she has come to harm," Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway told reporters. "I have significant cause for concern in terms of her wellbeing."

Media reports have speculated that Lawrence might have been grabbed as she made her way to work at York University early the following morning.

Galloway said that if she had been abducted it was likely she would have known the person, saying she would not have got into a car with a stranger or gone to visit someone she did not know.

"I believe it's probable that who she went with she knew," he said. "It would be extremely rare for anybody to be abducted and taken from the road, specifically in somewhere like North Yorkshire on the way to work. That would be highly unusual."

The detective said they still needed to establish her whereabouts the previous evening.

Searches were being conducted between her home and work. A study of CCTV images had found no evidence that she had walked along her usual route to work.