A police search is underway after a woman escaped from a mental health unit in Ealing.

Safia Abdi was on escorted leave from the Orchard Unit in St Bernard's Hospital on Monday (August 8) before she fled from her carer in Ealing Broadway, at the junction with Spring Bridge Road at 2pm.

The 48-year-old is described as black and was seen wearing a green headscarf, a blue waist length jacket and a grey and white knitted jumper.

She was also wearing a brown and yellow floral skirt and black sandalds.

The woman had been receiving treatment after being detained under section 37 of the Mental Health Act.

Anyone with information as to her whereabouts is urged to call police on 101.

Last month police released CCTV footage of a 16-year-old girl from Fulham missing for over three weeks.

The short film shows Francisca Simmonds in a bank in Fulham just before 4pm on July 18, a day after she had gone missing.

Police have confirmed the teenager is still missing.