FRENCH police were searching last night for the body of a teenage girl who is believed to have concluded a suicide pact with a friend after announcing on the internet that she wanted to kill herself.

Police helicopters were scouring the sea off Sangatte, near Calais, where Clemence, 14, is believed to have thrown herself off a cliff with Noémie, who was 15. Their full names have been withheld by police.

Noémie’s body was found on Thursday and the two girls’ belongings, including their school bags, mobile telephones and clothes, were recovered from the cliff edge.

With prosecutors saying that they held out little hope of finding the missing girl alive, the case provoked widespread emotion, which became more acute when her internet blog was made public.

Over the past two months Clemence has repeatedly left messages in which she talked of her suicidal intentions after breaking up with her boyfriend.

“I am ashamed to say I want to die, that I want to leave,” she wrote on November 15. “People die without wanting to . . . but I have a bed to sleep in. I should be quiet, shut my mouth, shout out in silence.”

Writing under her pseudonym, Ange de Tristesse (Angel of Sadness), she added on January 20: “No one has pushed me into suicide. I just wanted to leave this world, which is so empty, which I no longer value. Despite those people who I love with all my heart.” She accompanied her words with photographs that featured blood, destruction, women in tears and, in one instance, a crucifix.

Before disappearing, she also left a handwritten suicide note for her former boyfriend.

Her friends read the internet messages but do not appear to have believed them.

One wrote after Clemence’s disappearance: “You’ve known for a long time that you were going to leave. You warned me and I didn’t take you seriously. I feel guilty.”

Police said that Clemence was from a stable family, where she was the youngest of five children, and went to a private school near Calais. Teachers described her as “dynamic, and outgoing”.

Perinne, a friend, said: “She was very happy. Frankly, at first sight, you would not have thought she was the sort of girl who could do something like that.”

Noémie, who went to a state school, was said by staff to be “shy, but not a problem child”. However, police officers said that she was known to have expressed morbid ideas.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating