Key Points
- British doctor and science presenter Michael Mosley has gone missing while holidaying on the Greek island of Symi.
- Mosley was reported missing after setting off for a coastal walk between a beach and a nearby fishing village.
- Search and rescue operations are ongoing, with CCTV footage showing Mosley arrived at the village.
Search and rescue operations have continued for Dr Michael Mosley, the British doctor, journalist and presenter known for popularising intermittent fasting, who went missing while holidaying on the small Greek island of Symi.
The 67-year-old was last seen at 1.30pm on Wednesday when he set out on a short stroll along a rocky path between Saint Nikolas beach and the village of Pedi.
His wife Clare Bailey reported him missing when he failed to return by 7.30pm that evening.
CCTV images of Mosley have been released, taken outside a restaurant in Pedi, about 20 minutes after he left Saint Nikolas beach.
They show him holding an umbrella, shielding himself from the sun.
Search operation continues
After he was reported missing, Greek authorities started a wide search and rescue for the science journalist, with a helicopter from Athens deployed to assist the efforts.
Police, the fire brigade, coast guard and volunteers have been searching for Mosley on land and sea, using a helicopter, drones and a rescue dog as temperatures hit 40C.
Mosley did not have his mobile phone with him, which made tracing him more difficult.
Michael Mosley went missing after setting off on a coastal walk between the Agios Nikolas beach and the village of Pedi. Source: AAP / Damianidis Lefteris/EPA
Where is Symi?
Symi is a 16km wide, sparsely populated rocky island home to 2,500 residents.
The island is located on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea and about 6.5km from Türkiye.
Symi mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas said it was a 10-minute walk between the beach and back to the village of Pedi. It would take another 40 minutes to reach a main road.
“It is very strange,” Papakalodoukas told reporters. “You can’t disappear, you can’t get lost.”
The village of Pedi is about a 10-minute walk from the Saint Nikolas beach. Source: Getty / Yui Mok – PA Images/PA Images
What have authorities said?
A statement from local police, which has been translated, said they were informed about the “disappearance of the 67-year-old British national on the island” on Wednesday.
Local police opened an investigation to find him and clarified that a search is being “carried out by the Fire Brigade with the assistance of forces of the Hellenic Police, Civil Protection (a local and regional coordination agency), volunteers and a police dog”.
“We are working on the assumption that he might have been affected by the heat, that he might have slipped and fallen perhaps from a height. Right now nothing is being ruled out,” the chief police officer said, according to the Guardian.
“So far, we don’t have evidence of what may have happened, whether it is an accident … or something else,” said a senior police official who declined to be named.
Michael Mosley was last seen earlier this week when he set off for a coastal walk along Greece’s Symi island. Source: AAP / John Rogers/BBC/PA
They said drones are also used to help locate Mosley. In regards to the CCTV footage, a senior police officer coordinating the operation said the image is “one of many” they now had to the presenter.
“There are others that show him clearly heading towards a path that would lead him to the port town. They will help us narrow our search but in no way do they solve this mystery,” they said.
“We now know that he made it to the other side of the path,” the officer noted, adding: “But in some ways, the mystery has only deepened. Now we have to ask, where did he go from there, and if he took another unexpected route (to the port town) did he slip and fall? We’re still no nearer to solving this.”
Search and rescue operations from local police, the fire brigade, a local regional coordination agency and volunteers are ongoing. Source: AAP / Damianidis Lefteris/EPA
Papakalodoukas expressed concern that Mosley was no longer on the island, due to the wide search and small size of the island.
“It is a very small, controlled area, full of people. So if something happened to him there, we would have found him by now,” he told BBC News.
Who is Michael Mosley?
Michael Mosley has been a regular fixture on television and radio since graduating from medical school and joining the BBC in 1985.
He has made several documentaries around diet, exercise and sleep, including the BBC series Trust Me, I’m a Doctor. He is also a columnist for the Daily Mail.
Mosley popularised the 5:2 diet, which involves intermittent fasting for two days a week to lose weight.
The father of four is well known to Australian audiences, having recently opened up about his decades of insomnia as host of
The program looked at a world-first sleep treatment program in Adelaide, with Mosley and 30 other people diagnosed with sleep disorders as they undertook the eight-week program.
Mosley also presented alongside Indigenous exercise physiologist Ray Kelly. The series featured the pair taking on Australia’s fastest-growing chronic illness, type 2 diabetes, joining eight Australians to try and help them reverse their diabetes.
Mosley also made appearances on SBS programs The Cook Up and Insight.
With additional reporting by AAP
