Current and former students of Scotland's oldest university are being asked to search for the missing hand of the statue of their namesake.

The University of St Andrews, aptly launched its appeal on St Andrews Day as it announced plans to restore their statue and put it on display.

The large statue of St Andrew was gifted to the university in the 1960s.

It was made by Mussleburgh-born sculptor Alexander Handyside Ritchie and people have been known to touch the statue's hand for luck.

For almost four decades, the statue was in the Botanic Garden car park in St Andrews and at some point lost its left hand.

The university plans to clean, restore and move the statue to a central location and has appealed to generations of students past and present for information on the missing hand.

Dr Katie Stevenson, who is leading the restoration project, said: "The hand of St Andrew is an important part of the statue's history.

"We are pleased to be able to retrieve Andrew for conservation and repair and we hope that his new home in the gardens of the university museum on The Scores in St Andrews will allow people to enjoy him.

"It would be wonderful if we could locate his original hand for our repair work."