POLICE hunting for missing university chef Claudia Lawrence yesterday searched four addresses near her home.

Teams of police with sniffer dogs were involved in the searches.

Investigators wearing plastic gloves spent the morning scouring a two-storey house containing five flats on the corner of Heworth Green and Eastern Terrace, York, and a locked shed in the building’s rear yard.

They also searched a house in Heworth Road and two homes in Alexander Avenue, in Huntington, and Plum Tree Court.

The searches came three weeks after Miss Lawrence’s local pub, the Nag’s Head, was searched for the second time since she vanished.

Police would not say why the addresses were targeted.

A spokesman said: “It is the latest aspect of the search strategy, which is a central feature of the ongoing and continuously developing investigation.

“The searches are detailed.”

Miss Lawrence, 35, has not been seen since March 18, soon after she finished a shift at York University’s Goodricke College.

Police are treating her disappearance as suspected murder, and the charity Crimestoppers has offered a £10,000 reward for information.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0845-60-60-24-7 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.