THE mum of a girl who went missing after boarding a train from Balloch on Friday has admitted it was “the worst 24 hours of my life as a parent”.

Bonnie-Louise Greenan’s daughter Amy and her friend, both aged 12, were found early on Saturday morning on board a train at Helensburgh Central station – having been trapped on board overnight.

Bonnie-Louise shared a desperate plea for help on social media on Friday evening after Amy and her friend went missing, saying she had last been seen on a train in Balloch at around 2pm but that both girls' phones had been dead from about 7.30pm.

The girls reportedly boarded a train from Balloch to Glasgow, but then fell asleep on board another train as they tried home.

It was reported that staff only realised the girls were on the locked train after the pair waved down a passer-by on the Helensburgh station platform on Saturday morning.

Helensburgh police were alerted and reunited the girls with their parents a short time later.

On Saturday morning, in an update to her original Facebook appeal, Bonnie-Louise said: "Massive thanks to everyone for all your help and kind words, the police have called and have found Amy and her friend safe and well (cold, tired and scared).

"They had been locked on the train overnight till the conductor opened up this morning to find them."

In a separate post on Facebook afterwards, Bonnie-Louise added: “I would never wish any parent or child to go through that ordeal. Safe to say it was the worst 24 hours of my life as a parent.

“I agreed to share the story so that they would ensure something like this wouldn’t happen again."

ScotRail is understood to be helping British Transport Police with their enquiries into the incident.