The relieved parents of a lovestruck Keighley teenager who ran away with her sweetheart have told how they shed "tears of joy" after she was found safe and well.
Mark Allwood, 16, and Kimberley Whitaker, 15, were found at Mark's parents' home in Eldwick at about 12.30pm on Tuesday after a neighbour spotted them and tipped off their parents and the police.
The pair had not been seen since they left the house last Friday to go to the cinema.
Since disappearing they had been camping in a tent in a field in Eldwick, and had been visiting Mark's house to pick up some further provisions when they were seen.
Both sets of parents immediately went to the house and persuaded them to return home.
Kimberley's dad Neil, of Springfield Gardens, Keighley, spoke of his relief after his daughter's safe return.
"It's great to have Kimberley home," said the 40-year-old. "We are very, very lucky to have her back and we honestly thought we might never see them.
"There were tears of joy from myself and my wife Fiona when we got her back."
"For the last four nights we've been out all hours searching for them, and it has been awful not knowing where they were," he said.
Kimberley said she had not wanted to go on a family boating trip with her parents and sisters Christina, 18, and Samantha, 11, for the weekend because she had wanted to be with former motor mechanic apprentice Mark.
She added she and Mark had also been unhappy about restrictions her parents had placed on when the couple could see each other.
"The main reason we ran away was that we just wanted to be together as we want to be together all the time," said the Bingley Grammar School pupil, who has been dating Mark for three months.
"We thought the best thing to do was to go away so we could discover how serious we are for ourselves."
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