A caretaker and his girlfriend have been arrested on suspicion of murdering Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. Ian Huntley, 28, is being held on suspicion of abducting and murdering the 10-year-old Soham girls. His girlfriend Maxine Carr, 25, a teaching assistant in the girls' class last term, is being questioned on suspicion of murdering the pair.
Huntley, the site manager at Soham Village College, had reported talking to the girls on the night they vanished.
Police are searching the caretaker's parents' home in the nearby village of Littleport. Officers have cordoned off the house belonging to Kevin and Lynda Huntley.
Police are also continuing their searches, both around Soham and at the site encompassing the college, the girls' primary school and Mr Huntley's caretaker's cottage.
It also includes the college hall where Nicola and Kevin Wells and Sharon and Leslie Chapman made an emotional plea for the return of their daughters.
Detective chief inspector Andy Hebb says officers have recovered items of "major importance" from Soham College.
The arrests came after detectives spent almost seven hours yesterday questioning Huntley and Carr at separate police stations they had attended voluntarily.
They left the stations, in Ely and Peterborough, but did not return to their home, which by then was the scene of a major forensic search involving more than 20 officers. They were arrested in the early hours.
PA