The British teacher accused of blasphemy in Sudan could be facing more serious charges soon if witnesses provide new information, the country’s officials said yesterday.

As police sources and friends of Gillian Gibbons said that she was struggling to cope, British officials were working behind the scenes to secure her release.

Ms Gibbons, 54, a former deputy head, was still waiting to hear whether she would be charged, more than 48 hours after she was arrested for allowing her class of seven-year-olds to name their teddy bear Muhammad.

“She is sitting all by herself. No one has talked to her. No one has been in to see her today and she looks very sad,” said a police officer outside the Criminal Exploration Bureau, in one of Khartoum’s dusty side streets. “She has also had no food yet.”

British consular officials were turned away yesterday afternoon but were allowed to leave a bag of chicken kebabs and some water. A friend said that Ms Gibbons had last received visits from school staff on Monday. If found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, Ms Gibbons faces 40 lashes, a fine or six months in prison.

One of her pupils told reporters yesterday that he had named the teddy bear after himself. “The teacher asked what I wanted to call the teddy. I said Mohammad, after my name,” he said.

Salaheddin Abu Zaid, the general prosecutor from the Ministry of Justice, said that the investigation was not complete. “Questioning started yesterday and is continuing,” he said. “We are also questioning witnesses and, if they bring new elements to light, the charges could become more serious.”

A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in London predicted, however, that the “minute” issue would soon be resolved. “Our relationship with Britain is so good that we wouldn’t like such a minute event to be overblown,” Khalid al-Mubarak said.

In London, Gordon Brown said that he felt “very sorry” about what had happened to Ms Gibbons, a divorced mother of two, and that efforts were being made to get her released soon.

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