Police ramp up seek for lacking Dr Michael Mosley

Police have intensified the search to find Dr Michael Mosley as more officers will join the hunt for the Mail columnist on the Greek island of Symi today. 

Twenty-five police officers and firefighters have been using drones and a specialist dog unit to scour the island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain and is about 25 miles north of Rhodes.

Local officials described the temperature on the island as ‘unbearable’ on the day the journalist went missing. 

A helicopter was also deployed to assist the search at around 7pm local time (5pm BST) yesterday. 

Local police said late last night that the search had paused for the night but ‘more men will be coming’ on Friday morning.

Mr Mosley, known for popularising the 5:2 diet and for his appearances on The One Show and This Morning, is reported to have vanished after setting off on a walk to the centre of the island on Wednesday.

A statement from local police said officers were informed about the ‘disappearance of the 67-year-old British national on the island’ on Wednesday.

Police then asked for assistance from the Greek fire service, with six firefighters, a vehicle and a drone team arriving from Rhodes at about 2pm (12pm BST) yesterday. 

The rescue operation is said to be focusing on the Pedi area of the island after a woman reported seeing him there on Wednesday.

Mayor of Symi Eleftherios Papakalodoukas said firefighters had told him they believed it was ‘impossible’ Mosley was still there.

He told the BBC: ‘It is a very small, controlled area, full of people. So, if something happened to him there, we would have found him by now.’

A woman who gave her name only as Irini, and who works at Kamares coffee shop on Pedi Beach, said yesterday: ‘They came, the police, with the coast police and firemen, and the rescue team, to carry out the investigation, but I don’t think that anything has been found yet.’

Another woman in the area said Mosley’s disappearance was ‘strange’ as the path he was thought to be on is ‘clear’.

She said: ‘It’s a quiet place… if you see the map of the area it’s a clear path, it’s nothing dangerous, many people go every day, every few minutes, that’s the reason it’s very strange because it’s a clear path.’

A friend of the person Mosley was staying with said she was struggling to understand how anyone could get lost on the part of the island he was believed to be on.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Drive programme, she said: ‘It’s a road that sort of heads over the mountain side but it’s been recently widened and there is only one route, so it’s not possible to lose your way.

‘So, it is probably a 20-minute walk down the side of the mountain, but it’s not overly rugged or something that would be seen to be too dangerous, it’s something that tourists do every day in the summer.

‘I’m having trouble understanding how you could get lost.’

A local Facebook group said Mosley went for a walk from Saint Nikolas Beach at about 1.30pm Greek time on Wednesday.

Mosley is known for being a columnist for the Daily Mail and has made a number of films about diet and exercise.

The broadcaster fronted the Channel 4 show Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat? and was part of the BBC series Trust Me, I’m A Doctor.

He also lived with tapeworms in his gut for six weeks for the documentary Infested! Living With Parasites on BBC Four.

Mosley received an Emmy nod for BBC science documentary The Human Face, presented by John Cleese and featuring a raft of famous faces, including Elizabeth Hurley, Pierce Brosnan and Sir David Attenborough.

He also advocated intermittent fasting through the 5:2 diet and The Fast 800 diet.

Trust Me I’m A Doctor star Saleyha Ahsan wrote on social media that the news was ‘shocking’ and that she was hoping Mosley would be ‘found safe’.

‘I literally feel sick with worry,’ Ahsan added. ‘Don’t even know what to say.’

MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis wrote on X: ‘Feeling disturbed about the news about Dr Michael Mosley. I hope he’s ok.’

Mosley has four children with his wife Clare Bailey Mosley, also a doctor, author and health columnist, who wrote the recipe book Fast 800 Easy.

The couple, who have hosted theatre show tours together, recently attended the Hay Festival, where Mosley presented a special edition of his Radio 4 series and podcast Just One Thing.

Greek police spokesman Constantina Dimoglidou told the Mail: ‘Any and every attempt to track him down has not produced any result. 

‘He may have slipped, tripped, fallen, even been bitten by a snake, remaining injured somewhere.

‘There is just no trace of him. None whatsoever. And that means that for us at least, every potential scenario is open and being investigated.’

Police were tonight using thermal image cameras in hills overlooking Pedi in an attempt to find any trace of Dr Mosley.

Earlier investigators had questioned restaurant owners and shopkeepers ok the picturesque fishing village and examined CCTV footage.

Hopes were raised after a man matching his description and wearing the same clothes was spotted walking along the waterside at around 4.30pm on Wednesday with a woman.

Police and Dr Bailey rushed to the Katsaras restaurant to look at the footage and despite the amazing similarity it was ruled out after she said it was not her husband.

A bus stop where Dr Mosley was said to have been spotted was close by but had not been taped off by police.

Dr Mosley and his wife landed on the 25-square-mile island on Tuesday and were due to stay for a week with a couple who have a house in Symi Town.

The two couples took a boat up the coast on Wednesday morning. They stopped at Saint Nicholas beach where the diet doctor, a father of four, went for a swim in the sea before deciding to walk the 2.2 miles back home at 1.30pm.

He had left his phone at their friends’ home, and when Dr Bailey and the couple returned to the property, they found that Dr Mosley had not returned and his mobile was where he left it.

After the alarm was raised, a woman reported seeing Dr Mosley walking past a bus stop in Pedi, halfway between Saint Nicholas beach and Symi Town. There were also claims he was seen talking to someone.

If confirmed, the sighting would indicate he made it past the most perilous coastal segment of the route. But officers could not find any images of the doctor on the limited CCTV in the area.

There are several rocky outcrops along the route to Pedi and it was feared Dr Mosley could have fallen into the sea.

Once past the small coastal town of Pedi, the route to his holiday home involves main roads lined with houses.

Symi mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas said the area where the presenter went missing was considered ‘difficult as it is quite rocky’. 

‘He came back from the beach, some people saw him but then his tracks were lost,’ he said, adding that Dr Mosley ‘wanted to walk back from the beach, but that’s a distance of about an hour and a half and there are shortcuts he may have taken’.

Mr Papakalodoukas added: ‘The British broadcaster has come for holiday with his wife and is being hosted by a couple of their friends on our island. We know he had gone for a swim… but because he likes hiking and the area, he (decided he) would walk back.

‘Some witnesses said he was seen returning to Pedi and talking to another person. All of these are testimonies that are being investigated at the moment.’

Mr Papakalodoukas told the local paper, Kathimerini, that the high temperatures on the island on Wednesday were ‘unbearable’ and that ‘one could easily faint in such conditions’. An excessive heat warning was issued by the Greek meteorological service on the day Mr Mosley went missing.

Police last night said the search was focusing on the Pedi area where the alleged sighting was made by a local woman. A helicopter has been brought in and a special police dog unit will arrive today.

Police confirmed ‘all involved parties have been questioned’.

Greek police officials acknowledged that the disappearance of such a high-profile figure posed a huge challenge at the start of the tourist season.

‘He may have slipped and fallen, perhaps because of a heart attack along the way,’ a police source said. ‘Nothing at this stage can be ruled out.’

The Mail understands the police are leading the investigation, which indicates they believe he has gone missing on the land, but the coastguard is assisting.

Presenter Jeremy Vine, who has featured Dr Mosley on his BBC Radio 2 programme, wrote yesterday: ‘I’m praying this lovely man is found and thinking of Clare and the whole Mosley family.’

A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man who is missing in Greece and are in contact with the local authorities.’

The bestselling author renowned for his diet advice 

By Andy Jehring  

Dr Michael Mosley is one of Britain’s most well-known doctors, who rose to fame with television appearances and a string of best-selling diet books.

Born in Calcutta, India, he attended boarding school in England before reading PPE at Oxford. Dr Mosley tried his hand working as an investment banker before retraining as a doctor.

He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London before leaving to join the BBC as a trainee assistant producer.

Dr Mosley made a string of science and history documentaries over 25 years, rising to become a presenter and an executive producer at the corporation.

In his journalistic career he has worked alongside the likes of John Cleese, Jeremy Clarkson, Professor Robert Winston and Sir David Attenborough.

He devised and was executive producer on three of the most popular science and history programmes of the past decade: Pompeii – The Last Day, Supervolcano and Krakatoa.

He is also working as a presenter on Trust Me, I’m A Doctor on BBC 2. Alongside his screen work, Dr Mosley is well known for his dietary advice after publishing bestselling plans including The Fast 800 and the 5:2 Diet.

He is one of the leading advocates of intermittent fasting, low carbohydrate and ketogenic diets.

The diet doctor has also published a book on using diet to improve sleep, called Fast Asleep, after revealing he suffered from chronic insomnia.

Dr Mosley regularly appears on his podcast Just One Thing as well as the BBC’s The One Show.

His latest book, The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet, was published in December 2015 and became an international bestseller.

He has won numerous awards, including being named Medical Journalist of the Year by the British Medical Association in 1995.

As well as having a column in the Daily Mail, Dr Mosley writes for The Mail on Sunday, The Times and The Independent. He is a regular columnist for Focus magazine and Eureka.

He married Clare Bailey in 1987, after meeting in medical school, and they have four children together. 

Dr Mosley and his wife, who is also a Mail columnist, have just completed a nationwide tour together called: ‘Eat well, sleep better, live longer.’