The relieved parents of a lovestruck teenager who ran away with her sweetheart today 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 yesterday after a neighbour spotted them and tipped off their parents and the police.

The pair had not been seen since they left the house in Pengarth, Eldwick, on Friday to go to the cinema.

Since disappearing, they had been camping in a tent in a field at 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.

Today 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. We honestly thought we might never see them again.

"There were tears of joy from myself and my wife Fiona when we got her back."

Mr Whitaker said an appeal in yesterday's Telegraph & Argus had helped people come forward with information about possible sightings of the sweethearts and that had given them hope. "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.

Speaking to the T&A, 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 said that she and Mark had also been unhappy about restrictions her parents had placed on when the couple could see each other.

The Bingley Grammar School pupil, who has been dating Mark for three months, said: "The main reason we ran away was that we just wanted to be together as we want to be together all the time.

"We thought the best thing to do was to go away so we could discover how serious we are for ourselves."