More than 3,700 children run away from home or care in West Yorkshire each year, alarming figures have revealed.

It makes the region the third highest in terms of underage absentees outside London. Only Greater Manchester and Birmingham have higher numbers of child runaways.

The figures were revealed today on the day that Children's Secretary Ed Balls announced the launch of a new national support network to tackle the issue.

More than 86,000 children under the age of 16 go missing each year, with girls and boys aged 14 and 15 the most likely to disappear.

Martin Houghton-Brown, policy advisor on young runaways for the Children's Society, which has have been instrumental in the project, said: "This is fantastic news.

"For the first time the Government has made child runaways a priority.

"This is a massive problem across the country and in West Yorkshire which has one of the highest levels of runaways in the country.

"We have worked with West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Council on this project to help us identify the key issues in the area.

"In terms of young runaways the biggest concern is that we know some predatory people target young runaways for sexual exploitation. They lure them into what seems to be a safe environment and then use them.

"These are children we are talking about, many of who are escaping an abusive situation in the first place and therefore are even more vulnerable."