Two schoolgirls who found a bag full of cash now have something extra to go with the fortune - fame.

From its beginnings in The Argus, their story has spread round the nation and now the world.

TV crews from Germany and Japan have asked to film them telling their tale and their photographs have been seen on TV in Australia.

Accounts have also been broadcast by radio stations round the world.

Rachel Aumann, 12, said: "We've been in about four or five national newspapers in Britain and on local TV.

"It's just amazing. We get recognised by people in the street and on buses."

Rachel and her friend Maisie Balley, 12, were first in The Argus a year ago when they found shredded bank notes blowing in the wind as they walked to school.

They traced the "litter" to a rubbish bin and found a bag brimming with torn-up cash.

The Brighton schoolgirls have spent the past 12 months painstakingly sticking the notes together so the money can be replaced by the Bank of England.

So far, they have amassed £1,200 and expect to reach £2,000 by the time the jigsaw puzzles have been completed.

Rachel, who attends Dorothy Stringer School and Maisie, who goes to Varndean, said they were amazed by the enormous interest their story has generated.

A spokesman for the German TV company said: "We like unusual human-interest stories - this was very different."

The girls, meanwhile, intend having a break over Christmas before they resume their marathon sticking job.

"It won't be finished for a while but we hope to have the money ready to spend next Christmas."