Southampton liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, was at the centre of the mystery disappearance of a passenger when the ship docked in the city today.

Hampshire police have been called in to help in the investigation into the disappearance on the luxury liner.

Detectives and officers are today speaking to crew and passengers in a bid to establish what has happened to the woman.

It was on Sunday that the alarm was raised while the ship was travelling from Funchal in Madiera en route for Southampton when a German woman passenger was reported missing by family and friends.

Immediately an emergency search operation was initiated by the crew of QE2 but no sign of the passenger, feared to have been lost overboard, has been discovered.

A spokesman for Cunard said: "A thorough search was conducted on the ship, but the guest was not located.

"The ship then turned and retraced its route to its location at the time the guest was last seen.'' The Portugese authorities in Lisbon together with the coastguard in Falmouth as well as the Southampton based Maritime and Coastguard Agency were also alerted to the disappearance.

A search and rescue personnel were scrambled in Lisbon and an aerial search was carried out in the area but the passenger was not found.

As darkness fell the sea and air search was called off for the day and QE2 resumed her course for Southampton while the search by the Lison authorities resumed the following day but again nothing was seen.

QE2 is due to leave Southampton at 5pm for thre start of her 25th annual round-the-world voyage.