CRIMEWATCH received eight calls following their renewed appeal for information about the disappearance of York chef Claudia Lawrence.

The BBC programme repeated its previous appeal last night, as police continue to seek information about the case.

North Yorkshire Police also received one call directly, and a force spokeswoman said all the calls would be “fed into the incident team for further investigation”.

Claudia, from Heworth, was 35 when she went missing in March 2009. She failed to arrive for work at the University of York, sparking a huge police search. Her disappearance is treated as suspected murder.

Peter Lawrence welcomed the news, saying: “I think it is very good of Crimewatch to fit in their busy schedule another appeal which gets people calling in to tell anything at all which might help the investigation – it is what we have been asking for.

“I just hope one of the pieces of information is the piece of the puzzle which police say will give them that short step to finding out what happened to Claudia.”