The parents of Sarah Payne spoke yesterday of how the missing eight-year-old had been told about 'Stranger Danger' at school.

The couple said the warnings had made their mark on Sarah who vanished exactly two weeks ago.

Police are convinced she was abducted and a huge police hunt is now being concentrated on finding a white van seen in the country lane at the time she disappeared.

Her parents, Sara and Michael, who are both 31, told yesterday how 'Stranger Danger' had been taught to Sarah, a girl they described as a 'real little lady'.

Mrs Payne said: "She was very well up on stranger danger. She gave us a very good talking to about it and to her brothers and sister as well."

The couple said that Sarah was unlikely to have gone off willingly with a stranger who approached her because the dangers had been embedded in her.

Mr and Mrs Payne spent yesterday afternoon meeting small groups of journalists as part of their bid to make sure that the hunt for Sarah does not begin to slip out of the news.

It was also a chance to learn a little more about the couple whose ordeal has been followed by the nation for the last 14 days.

Sara and Michael Payne met when they were 16 and married ten years ago.

They say it was always their wish to have a large family and life seemed to have brought them everything they wanted in the form of sons Lee, 13, Luke,11, Sarah and her six year-old sister, Charlotte.

Part of a close and loving family, the couple left their home in Surrey two weeks ago for what should have been just another of their regular visits to the seaside home of Michael's parents, Terry and Lesley Payne, at Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton.

After spending most of Saturday on the beach, their four children went into fields 200 yards away from the family home to play as they had done many times before.

But only three of their children were to return, sparking one of the biggest police searches ever seen in Britain.

Two weeks on Mr Payne admitted: "We are getting more and more anxious."

His wife added: "We are worried for Sarah and how she is coping."

Asked how Sarah might handle a difficult or adverse situation, Mrs Payne said: "To be quite honest, Sarah is our daughter and we hope the strength you see in us will be with her."

The couple described Sarah as a timid girl who would get upset if they raised their voices.

Mrs Payne said: "It is always softly softly with Sarah, but it has never needed to be any other way."

The couple say they plan to stay in Sussex until Sarah is found.

Asked about the police decision to try and prepare them for bad news as a new search of remote countryside is launched, Mrs Payne said: "The police have to be policemen "It's their job but I am positive Sarah is safe and well."

The couple say the police have kept them fully informed at every stage of the operation, now involving 300 officers, a tenth of the entire Sussex force.

The couple say that their regular appearances on television and at Press conferences are their way of helping the police make sure that information from the public continues to comes in.

The response has been staggering with more than 17,500 calls to the operation room at Littlehampton plus cards, flowers and hundreds of letters.