Michael Mosley’s wife refuses to lose hope amid ‘unbearable’ ordeal
Michael Mosley’s wife said she was refusing to “lose hope” as she spoke for the first time since the TV doctor went missing on a Greek island.
Dr Clare Bailey Mosley was joined on Symi by the couple’s four children as the search for her husband went into its fourth day.
She expressed their gratitude to the dozens of Greek volunteers and emergency workers scouring the harsh terrain of Symi island amid unrelentingly high temperatures.
Speaking for the first time since her husband’s disappearance, Dr Bailey Mosley said on Saturday: “It has been three days since Michael left the beach to go for a walk. The longest and most unbearable days for myself and my children.
“The search is ongoing and our family are so incredibly grateful to the people of Symi, the Greek authorities and the British Consulate who are working tirelessly to help find Michael. We will not lose hope.”
Dr Mosley vanished after he was seen leaving the St Nicholas Beach restaurant at lunchtime on Wednesday.
He and his wife had travelled by boat from Symi town, where they were staying in a villa, to St Nicholas beach on Wednesday morning. The return service was not due until 4pm and Dr Mosley opted to walk home on his own.
His wife raised the alarm at 7.30pm on Wednesday evening when she realised he had not returned to their villa.
Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas, the Mayor of Symi, said “many troubling questions” remained about Dr Mosley’s movements on the day he disappeared
“You can easily get lost and it’s not wise to walk it in the middle of the afternoon in temperatures approaching 40c.
“Why did he leave the beach and his wife and friends?
“Why did he not take his telephone? From the CCTV footage it’s also clear he didn’t stop for a drink in Pedi or take a rest.
“He seemed to be walking very determinedly, surely it would have been better to stop and have a coffee or some water but no he decided to carry on.”
Mr Papakaloudoukas promised a thermal-imaging helicopter would be arriving soon to join the search, after saying the sniffer dogs were finding the heat unbearable.
06:45 PM BST
Key events of the day
A thermal imaging helicopter will soon arrive to assist with the search, Greek authorities said.
The mayor of Symi, the island where Dr Michael Mosley went missing, said “troubling questions” remained over his movements.
Firefighters searched a network of caves known locally as ‘The Abyss’.
Dr Clare Mosley, the wife of Michael Mosley, vowed “we will not lose hope”.
The Symi mayor said there would be “no chance” of calling off the search before the missing doctor is found.
05:28 PM BST
Son of British man missing in similar case urges family not to give up
The son of a British man who went missing on a Greek island in 2019 has urged the Mosley family not to give up the search.
John Tossell,78, from Bridgend, disappeared on Zakynthos five years ago after going on a walk to visit a monastery on Mount Skopos.
“When I read the story it’s like a cut and paste of my father,” Gary Tossell told Sky News.
“I wish nothing but love to the Mosley family as I know exactly what they’re going through and it must be awful for them out there at the minute. I want to tell them not to give up,” he added.
05:03 PM BST
Thermal imaging helicopter arriving soon, mayor says
The mayor of Symi has promised there will be a thermal-imaging helicopter arriving soon, after admitting sniffer dogs are struggling with the intense heat.
One group of rescue workers coming off the mountain after a fruitless three-hour shift described the heat as almost unbearable.
The woman, wearing overalls, mountain boots and a helmet, said it was “very hot”.
Asked if she would recommend the area as a trekking route, she told Sky News: “No, absolutely not. Not without equipment and special shoes.”
Local authorities have considered a number of possibilities for Dr Mosley’s disappearance, including that he may have suffered a fall or been bitten by a snake.
He did not have his mobile phone with him, which has hampered efforts to find him.
04:52 PM BST
Pictured: Search teams look for missing TV doctor
03:28 PM BST
‘Troubling questions remain,’ says Symi mayor
Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas, the longstanding mayor of Symi, said many troubling questions remained about Dr Mosley’s movement on the day he disappeared.
“We know he came through Pedi and then walked onwards towards Agia Marina, it is about two miles and a harder walk than from St Nicholas,” he said. “If he did try and walk that way to Symi then that is a big mistake.”
Mr Papakaloudoukas added: “There are also many troubling questions here. Why did he leave the beach and his wife and friends?
“Why did he not take his telephone ? From the CCTV footage it’s also clear he didn’t stop for a drink in Pedi or take a rest.
“He seemed to be walking very determinedly, surely it would have been better to stop and have a coffee or some water but no he decided to carry on.”
02:36 PM BST
Mosley’s decision was ‘inexplicable’, rescuer says
Michael Mosley appears to have taken a treacherous mountainous path, a decision one of the rescuers said was “inexplicable”.
She said: “The path is not easy to follow, if he took a wrong turn, he would be lost. He could be anywhere; it is a race against time.”
More than 100 police and coast guard officers are involved in the search for the missing TV doctor, alongside volunteers including Dr Mosley’s wife and their four children.
02:29 PM BST
Firefighters forced to split up due to heat and vast terrain
Firefighters have been forced to split up and are covering vast expanses of steep rocky terrain on their own.
One uniformed worker said there were 10 of them searching multiple summits because it was too dangerous for large crews to work during the summer months.
The rescuers also released a drone as they trekked up a mountainous area through unrelenting heat.
From near one of the peaks, firefighter Stergos Giakoumakis said: “Because it’s not so easy to bring 100 people here, especially this period, because it’s the most dangerous period.
“Everything is dry and it is too dangerous for firemen to search.”
A different team worked in the morning and there was a half-hour handover, he added.
02:24 PM BST
Emergency helicopter brought in to help with search
An emergency helicopter was brought in to help with the search for Dr Mosley on Saturday afternoon
The helicopter was seen at 3.20pm flying over Pedi bay towards the mountainous terrain where the hunt for Mosley is being carried out.
Guidebooks warn that the footpath thought to have been taken by Dr Mosley from Pedi to Agia Marina is ‘technically difficult’ and easy to stumble and get lost along.
It adds the unforgiving limestone terrain is a “desert mountain scape” with much of the path “stony to very stony underfoot”.
01:30 PM BST
Pictured: Michael Mosley & wife Dr Clare Bailey Mosley
01:15 PM BST
Firefighters search ‘The Abyss’ for missing doctor
Patrick Sawer writes:
As the searches continued firefighters on the beaches and jetties of Agia Marina were seen on Saturday exploring a network of caves known locally as ‘The Abyss’.
The caves, which sit beneath a rocky outcrop off the picturesque Agia beach and 15th century chapel, are a sprawling maze of tunnels that can rapidly fill up with seawater.
Asked about where they think Dr Mosley could have travelled to on the island, one firefighter replied: “Everywhere”.
A waiter at a beachside restaurant said: “It’s like a deep system of tunnels, but it is full of water and can spread for kilometres. If there is a hole and you fall, you lose your sense of balance and drown there.
“There is a reason they call it the ‘Abyss’. There is something very strange going on”.
He said staff had combed their CCTV footage for any sign of Dr Mosley but there was no sight of him.
01:01 PM BST
‘We will not lose hope,’ wife of Michael Mosley says
The wife of missing TV doctor Michael Mosley has pledged she won’t “lose hope” after “the longest and most unbearable days” for her family.
Dr Clare Bailey Mosley expressed her gratitude to the dozens of Greek volunteers and emergency workers searching for her husband in the unrelenting heat and harsh terrain of Symi island.
Speaking for the first time since her husband’s disappearance she said in a statement: “It has been three days since Michael left the beach to go for a walk. The longest and most unbearable days for myself and my children.
“The search is ongoing and our family are so incredibly grateful to the people of Symi, the Greek authorities and the British Consulate who are working tirelessly to help find Michael. We will not lose hope.”
Her words came as British volunteers joined the search for Dr Mosley on Saturday as fears intensified for his safety.
A small group of Britons arrived on the island of Symi to join efforts to find Dr Mosley as new CCTV footage of him walking through the port village of Pedi emerged.
12:49 PM BST
Pictured: Volunteers search for missing doctor
12:44 PM BST
‘No shade’ in suspected disappearance location
Firefighters using a drone to search for the missing doctor have said there is no path or shade near the top of the hill that sits between Pedi bay and Agia Marina, where they suspect he may have walked.
Describing the location, they said dead grass juts out between rocks and large boulders, with the only living vegetation being a few small shrubs.
The search for Dr Mosley — now in its fourth day — is currently concentrated around Agia Marina on Symi island.
12:36 PM BST
Watch: CCTV shows last sighting of Michael Mosley
Footage obtained by The Telegraph suggests the missing doctor completed a walk to Pedi after leaving his wife at Agios Nikolaos beach.
Watch: CCTV shows last sighting of Michael Mosley
Footage obtained by The Telegraph suggests the missing doctor completed a walk to Pedi after leaving his wife at Agios Nikolaos beach
Read more: https://t.co/SjYzICjr9G pic.twitter.com/93INIOi7es— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 7, 2024
12:33 PM BST
‘No chance’ search will be called off until missing doctor found
The mayor of the Greek island where TV doctor Michael Mosley has gone missing has said there is “no chance” the search will be called off until he is found.
“There is no chance we will call off the searches, but I believe they will conclude somewhere today,” Eleftherios Papakalodoukas, the mayor of Symi for 22 years, said.
Speaking through a translator, Mr Papakaloudoukas questioned how anyone could survive in heat that topped 40C on the day Dr Mosley disappeared.
“There are only rocks, no shade, no trees. With 47 degrees heat you can’t survive,” he said.
12:27 PM BST
Search focuses in on beach marina
Firefighters and volunteers headed for Agia Marina beach and jetties after retracing Dr Mosley’s apparent steps through a treacherous and snake infested Greek mountain path offering no shade from the searing temperatures.
Read the full report by Max Stephens and Patrick Sawer here.
