GARDAI searching for missing mum-to-be Anna Byrne have discovered a body in the sea in Howth.

The 35-year-old mum who was 38 weeks pregnant with twins vanished from her home in Beechdale, Dunboyne, Co Meath, yesterday morning.

Anna’s blue Nissan Micra was discovered very late last night in Howth and Gardai immediately launched an air and sea search with a body being discovered in the sea this morning.

Her family and friends had made desperate pleas for information on her whereabouts.

She was reported missing when she failed to collect her toddler from a creche near her home yesterday.

Her distraught brother Ciaran Deeney organised a late night search party at the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire in south Dublin after gardai informed him that a signal from her mobile phone was traced to the area.

Mr Deeney,had told the Irish Independent there was no reason for his sister to be in Dun Laoghaire.

He said his sister "was highly hormonal" due to her pregnancy and he thought she may have inexplicably boarded a ferry to the UK.

But after a group of about a dozen friends and family met shortly before midnight in the seaside town, they learned there were no ferries from the port yesterday.

The Garda helicopter spotted a body in the water at first light today.