A HUGE manhunt was launched last night after a teenage backpacker from North Yorkshire was found dead under a bridge in Australia.

Police in Queensland believe Caroline Ann Stuttle, 19, from York, was robbed and then thrown from the 65ft bridge in the town of Bundaberg.

Detectives were last night trying to trace three young men seen under the bridge earlier in the evening and a woman who made an anonymous call reporting screams in the area.

Caroline had been touring Australia for the last two months with schoolfriend Sarah Holiday, 20, who was last night being comforted by police.

They had only been in the town, nearly 200 miles north of Brisbane, for a few days.

She had left Sarah at Riverdale Caravan Park on Wednesday night where they were staying to make a call to her boyfriend in the UK from a public phone.

She never returned, although she rang Sarah at 9.15pm local time to say she was on the way back.

Police received an anonymous call from a woman 15 minutes later reporting screams coming from the area of the bridge.

Sarah raised the alarm when Caroline failed to return, and her body was found at about 10.30pm.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Police said there was no evidence Caroline had been sexually assaulted, shot or stabbed.

"The investigation is focusing on the possibility she was robbed and died from injuries suffered from being thrown from the bridge," said a spokeswoman.

Justin Grogan, 29, the son of Riverdale Caravan Park's owner, said the whole community was shocked by the incident.

He said the pair had only been in Bundaberg, which is home to 43,000 people, since Sunday and were trying to find work as fruit pickers before moving further north.

He added: "The mood everywhere is very sombre and everyone is devastated. Our thoughts go out to the family. This is not some big city. It is a quiet town and this kind of thing just doesn't happen. It's terrible."

Caroline's handbag and mobile phone were missing and, because the bridge has a railing about a metre-and-a-half high, police believe she must have been thrown over.

Last night, Caroline's mother, Marjorie, was being comforted by friends at her home in Huntington Road, York. Her father, Alan, a well-known artist who runs a gallery in Micklegate, was on his way back to England from Italy.

Caroline left England in February for her backpacking trip and had been due to go to Manchester University to do a psychology degree later this year. She had hoped to work in forensic medicine.

Her brother, Richard, 24, who is working as a chef at holiday chalets in the French Alps, was told the news and was expected to fly home last night.

Caroline was a former pupil of Huntington School, where shocked staff remembered her as an outgoing girl with a wide circle of friends and a bright future.

Family friend David Marks said: "Everybody has been devastated by this. Caroline was a lovely, beautiful girl, easy-going with a lovely personality. It is a tragedy that her life has been snuffed out."

He said Caroline and Sarah were sensible girls who had taken all the right precautions while travelling.

The death comes less than a year after British traveller Peter Falconio, 28, went missing north of Alice Springs after he and his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, 27, were attacked by a man who flagged down their camper van. His body has never been found.