A MANHUNT has been launched in a bid to locate the England squad who are missing in Redditch after being kidnapped from a town supermarket last week.

A high-speed chase led by the duty manager of Sainsburys resulted in the safe recovery of Sven but unfortunately the rest of the boys have not been found.

Well, their cardboard counterparts haven't.

Supermarket bosses are adamant they do not want to take legal action against the people who have snatched the life-size cardboard cut outs, they just want them back to auction off for charity.

Sainsburys store manager Mark Pickerill said: "I was gobsmacked when I found out someone had kidknapped Sven and the team.

"We've been trying our best to protect them, my colleague even chased a customer across the car park to rescue Sven.

"We've been inundated with customers asking if they can have the players and have promised that we will be auctioning them in aid of Comic Relief after the World Cup is over."

A Sainsburys spokesman added: "We are not out to prosecute anyone we have just asked the police to help locate the rest of the England team. We don't want our customers missing out.

"The other day someone called the Redditch store very upset because he thought we were auctioning the team off but he had seen them in somebody's garden. But we assured him they had been taken without our knowledge."