AN Easter Bunny and Buddy, aka Emma Walker and Carl Bowstead, have appeared in York as part of the city’s annual Chocolate Festival.

The Great York Bunny Search is encouraging visitors and residents to explore Yorks’s historic streets to find brightly-coloured ceramic bunnies hidden in shop windows.

Organised by Make It York, the bunnies have been decorated by local artists and businesses.

The festival is being staged in Parliament Street and Shambles Food Court, with local producers selling their goods and offering samples, and chocolate making lessons in a demonstration tent.

Meanwhile, York is set for one of its warmest and sunniest Easters in years, with temperatures soaring daily into the low 20s - hotter than many cities and resorts in the Mediterranean.

The sunshine attracted sunbathers to York Museum Gardens and drinkers to packed riverside bars along the Ouse.