THE PARENTS and friends of a missing teenager last night made an urgent appeal for help in finding the 19-year-old shop assistant.Police searches continued yesterday after concern grew for Daniel Hannant who was last seen on Saturday night in Southwold after he had been out with friends for the evening.

THE PARENTS and friends of a missing teenager last night made an urgent appeal for help in finding the 19-year-old shop assistant.

Police searches continued yesterday after concern grew for Daniel Hannant who was last seen on Saturday night in Southwold after he had been out with friends for the evening.

Daniel was expected to walk a mile home from the Royal British Legion Club in Blackmill Road, Southwold, to his home in Windsor Road, Reydon, and then go to work on Sunday morning in the town's Somerfields store.

But the teenager has not been seen since he separated from his group of friends at the Royal British Legion at about midnight.

His anxious father, 50-year-old decorator Michael Hannant, said: 'We have no idea where he might have gone. I have looked around Southwold on three occasions, and I have been up and down Mights Bridge.

'My wife and I both said to him on Saturday night 'do not get drunk' as he had to get up early for work on Sunday morning and he said he would be home just after midnight.'

But Daniel's mother, Patricia Hannant, discovered he was missing at about 3.30am on Sunday when she awoke to go to the bathroom and found that he was not at home.

Posters with Daniel's picture have been displayed throughout the Southwold area.

Asa Rush, an 18-year-old student at Great Yarmouth College, lives in Windsor Road close to Daniel and he was putting up posters in shop windows yesterday.

Asa grew up with Daniel and he said: 'We have known each other all our lives. He is a nice boy, a good laugh, always bubbly.'

Daniel had been on the same shift at Somerfields with 18-year-old Steven Webb, of Elliott Avenue, Reydon.

The pair left the shop at 8pm on Saturday and Daniel went home to eat chips and get changed before Steven arrived for a couple of drinks.

They then left Reydon at about 9.30pm to walk into Southwold where they met up with friends enjoying live music at the Royal British Legion.

Steven said: 'I last saw Daniel at about midnight. We were all planning to walk home together and when I turned to get hold of him, I could not find him and I presumed he had walked home - it was typical of him to do that.

'Daniel was very merry, and there had been no arguments or anything like that. I was working on Sunday and I expected him to turn up at 4pm, come home and then bluff it with his parents and say he had been working.

'I have tried his phone but it is not on and that is unusual.'

Daniel has two brothers, Joseph, 17, and Mark, 14, and they have been helping with police searches.

Kevin Howell, acting police inspector, said searches were being carried out in the back gardens of houses close to the Royal British Legion and the lowland search and rescue team could be called in if necessary.

'I am optimistic at the moment, that is the way we are looking at it,' he said.

Extensive searches were carried out on Sunday by the Suffolk police helicopter and officers with a sniffer dog on the beach, dunes and marshland.

Daniel was wearing dark blue jeans, a blue shirt with black pin stripes and black padded trainers. He is slim, about 5ft 8ins tall with dark brown hair.