The Foreign Office advises tourists that the crime rate in the Dominican Republic is "high", with tourists often mugged at gunpoint.

Colonel Martinez insisted: "It is not dangerous, they should be safe as long as they are careful with their possessions and don't wear expensive jewellery and gold watches.

"I don't want to tell you they are 100 per cent safe but they will be if they are careful."

Once they locate the runaways, the local police are expected to arrange for them to be reunited with their parents, who will have the final say about what happens to them next. It is unclear whether they have committed any crime, though as minors they must have permission from their parents to travel abroad.

Edward, whose mother lives in Canada, and Indira, whose family own a chain of pharmacies in Kazakhstan, slipped out of school on Monday night, taking a taxi to Manchester Airport at 3am, where they boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic via Europe.

Andrew Johnson, headmaster of Stonyhurst, said: We believe the police have located them to an area of the Dominican Republic but we dont know for sure that the police have found them. We are waiting to hear any news.

We really want to get them back and know that they are safe, but they need to be reunited with their parents and have a conversation with them.

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: We do have a rough idea where they are located. We are working closely with the teenagers' parents, who live abroad, and one is hoping to travel out to the island to meet them.

When they are located, they will not be dragged back in handcuffs - instead it is our priority to locate them safely as they remain as being reported missing.

The runaways have been lauded as heroes by some classmates, with one suggesting they were keeping up a school tradition known as hen banter which involved rebelling against school rules.

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Stonyhurst College runaways: police search beaches in hunt for Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva