This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Two teenagers who ran away from their Lancashire boarding school in search of sunshine have been found at a hotel in the Dominican Republic, Lancashire police said on Monday.

Indira Gainiyeva and Edward Bunyan, both 16, became internet heroes after sneaking out of Stonyhurst college near Clitheroe a week ago and reportedly using credit cards to pay for flights to the Caribbean.

On Monday Lancashire police confirmed the pair had been located and were "safe and well".

In a statement the force said: "The students have thankfully been located safe and well at a hotel in the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic. Plans are now being made for their safe return to the UK. They will be given a welfare debrief by police following their return.

"Our priority throughout this has been to ensure the safety and welfare of these students and after they have been spoken to on their return this will signal an end of police involvement in this matter."

Stonyhurst headteacher Andrew Johnson said the school was delighted the pair had been found.

He added: "They are currently in the care of the police and a family member.

"Staff and pupils at the college have been concerned in recent days for the safety of the two. We are really most grateful to parents and friends of Stonyhurst for their overwhelming support at this difficult time, and for their prayers for the safety of the two young people.

"Over the coming days we will be having discussions with the two young people and their families about what has happened and also what happens next. However, it is simply too early at the moment to speculate about the future."

The teenagers are believed to have crept out of school in the early hours of 15 January, taking a taxi at 3am to Manchester airport, where they boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic via Europe.

Friends of the pair were quoted as saying the teenagers were sick of the Lancastrian rain and fancied a break in the sun.

A source told the Daily Mail: "It can be pretty miserable at a bleak 15th-century [sic] Jesuit school in the middle of winter and close friends say they had a bad case of the post-holiday blues."

Stonyhurst college is an independent fee-paying boarding and day school and was founded in 1593. Overseas and UK children aged 13 to 18 are taught there with annual boarding fees of almost £30,000.

There are 468 pupils at the school, of which 310 are boarders.

Many students took to social media – using the hashtags #WheresBunyan and #WheresIndira – to find news of their friends, many declaring the runaways "legends".

Matthew Mostyn, second master at the college, said last week that the school's priority was to "find them, to make absolutely sure they are safe and sound and see them reunited with their families".

• This article was amended on 24 January 2014. In the earlier version Stonyhurst college was placed in Clitheroe, and the photo caption described it as a 15th-century school, repeating an incorrect description given in a quote originally given to the Daily Mail and reproduced in the article.