A McDonalds store in Newport has offered two tickets to the next home game the Welsh football team play in exchange for the return of an inflatable Ronald McDonald which blew away.

The 25ft figure was whisked away by high winds and was reported to have blown onto the main train line between Cardiff and London.

The figure is worth a few hundred pounds and we are keen to get it back

Robert Parker

However, investigations by staff from Railtrack found nothing, and no sign of Ronald has been seen since.

McDonald's had previously offered a free meal to anybody with information leading to the safe return of the figure.

But nobody came forward, and the company has now upped the reward stakes, hoping the lure of tickets to watch in-form Wales will be more successful.

Publicity

Robert Parker, corporate affairs manager for McDonald's in Wales, said the company had a lot of contact with grassroots' football in the area and would not have a problem getting tickets.

"It was actually put to me as a suggestion to offer a reward and it occurred to me to offer tickets," he said.

"The figure is worth a few hundred pounds and we are keen to get it back.

"It may be that it's been destroyed, I can only spectulate on that.

"But it was doing a good job for us in terms of publicity. The main body is about 10ft high, but the arms go higher than that, so it was very visible."

He added that they had been unable to say for certain if the figure had actually blown onto the train track.

The figure was not inflated at the time it went missing from the store in Cardiff Road, Newport.