POLICE in Essex are concerned for the safety of four teenage scouts who have gone missing following the World Jamboree in Chelmsford.More than 40,000 youngsters and leaders gathered at Chelmsford's Hylands Park, also home to next weekend's V Festival, at the end of last month to begin 10 days celebrating a centenary of scouting.

POLICE in Essex are concerned for the safety of four teenage scouts who have gone missing following the World Jamboree in Chelmsford.

More than 40,000 youngsters and leaders gathered at Chelmsford's Hylands Park, also home to next weekend's V Festival, at the end of last month to begin 10 days celebrating a centenary of scouting.

However, as the hundreds of different groups began to make their way home to locations from around the globe, it was noticed that four African and Asian scouts were missing.

Although the quartet - from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and an unspecified country - all have the correct visas to visit the country, police say they remain concerned for their safety.

Nine more scouts from Bangladesh and Uganda, aged 16 to 24, are also unaccounted for but it has been confirmed that after arriving in the UK they failed to attend the jamboree.

A spokesman for the Scout Association said: “We are working with the local police force and they are saying there are not treating the matter as suspicious.

“We kept an eye on this throughout the period of the event. The police are briefing us and we're co-operating fully with them. Our job is to run the Jamboree.”