The mother of missing eight-year-old Sarah Payne says she is convinced her daughter is still alive.

Mrs Payne and her husband, Michael, told a Press conference they were sure their daughter would be discovered but pleaded with police to find her.

Tearful Michael said his message to Sarah if she was watching news reports about the hunt was: "Hang on in there, girl. We are coming for you."

Mrs Payne said: "Sarah is okay, she is fine and we just need to find her."

The family released footage from a home video featuring Sarah that was filmed a week before her disappearance.

Mrs Payne said she had also told her other children the story of two East Sussex girls who were kidnapped last year and found alive four days later.

She said: "We told them the story and they have got a lot of hope from that."

Mr Payne, 31, added: "She's out there somewhere, we've just go to locate her."

Mrs Payne said the support of members of the public who had helped search for the missing eight-year-old had helped her to stay positive and said she was determined that her daughter would be found.

But she said it was having a devastating effect on the couple's three other children, Luke, 11, Lee, 13, and Charlotte, six, saying: "The children are getting worse. They have never been apart this long, never."

Mrs Payne said: "I can feel the hope from everybody. Everybody's positive and we are staying that way."

She urged people to be extra vigilant while the hunt continued, adding: "Just look around you."

She asked people to search their minds for information about a white van and grey Ford Mondeo which had been linked to the investigation and asked for people to contact police if a white van had made a delivery to their home on Saturday, when Sarah went missing.

Mr Payne said if Sarah could see or hear reports of the news conference, he wanted her to know that the family was not giving up.

He said: "We are going to bring you home with your brothers and sisters."

As the search for the missing schoolgirl resumed, Mr Payne said he could not say a big enough thank you to volunteers and police who had been searching for the missing schoolgirl.

He said they had explained everything about the disappearance to their other three children and had always tried to be truthful with the children.

They had gone through newspaper stories about the disappearance with their daughter, Charlotte, to try to explain what had happened.

The whole family was drawing comfort from the story of the two Hastings schoolgirls who were found safe several days after they were abducted.

Mrs Payne paid tribute to the hundreds of volunteers who had been searching woods and fields often in appalling weather conditions.

She said: "How can you begin to thank all those people? They are just wonderful."