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'Bad luck' that Greek helicopter missed body '20 times' in Michael Mosley search

09 June 2024 , 11:30
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Police have used helicopters, divers, dogs, and drones in the search for Michael Mosley (Image: PA)
Police have used helicopters, divers, dogs, and drones in the search for Michael Mosley (Image: PA)

The disappearance of Michael Mosley prompted a 'desperate' search and rescue operation by emergency services, however it was another crew that discovered a body in the area.

The This Morning doctor has been missing on the Greek island of Symi since Wednesday after going for a solo hike. The 67-year-old, known for popularising the 5:2 diet, was last with friends at Agios Nikolaos beach before going for a walk alone to the centre of the island.

But when he failed to return to the accommodation he was staying at with his wife, Clare Bailey, by 7.30pm that evening, she raised the alarm. On Sunday, it was confirmed that a body had been found in the search.

Found with an umbrella close by, the remains were discovered in a rocky area beside Agia Marina, around a 30-minute walk from the village of Pedi, where Dr Mosley was last seen on CCTV. The body, which is yet to be formally identified, was discovered beneath a fence that runs around a bar on Agia Marina beach, which is surrounded by hilly, rocky terrain.

'Bad luck' that Greek helicopter missed body '20 times' in Michael Mosley search qhiqquiqtuiqrhprwA member of the search team flying a drone in Symi, Greece, where a search and rescue operation was underway for TV doctor Michael Mosley (PA)

On Saturday, an emergency helicopter circled the wider Pedi area for several hours and hovered over the spot where the body was found. It was reportedly spotted by a TV crew filming with the local mayor and his deputy.

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Ilias Haskas, deputy mayor of the island, said the TV crew of ERT, a national TV station, were heading towards a new spot where investigations were going to take place today, and as they were filming on the boat, they caught an image of something that looked like clothing. He said: "They went back to their work headquarters to analyse the footage and concluded that it needed further investigation so they did, and they found him was 10m away from the shore, not far away from Agia marina."

'Bad luck' that Greek helicopter missed body '20 times' in Michael Mosley searchMichael Mosley was last seen alive on Symi in Wednesday (ITV)

Local cameraman, known as Antonios, reportedly managed to locate the body earlier this morning. Speaking to Sky News correspondent Sadiya Chowdhury, he said that he spotted "something on the beach near the fence."

Unable to work out what the figure was, he took two pictures using his long-distance camera lens. Sky News reports that he "took a picture of the photo on the camera screen using an iPhone - zooming in on the phone." The cameraman said it was just "bad luck" that rescue helicopters had missed the body, which he claimed they had passed "20 times" on Saturday.

'Bad luck' that Greek helicopter missed body '20 times' in Michael Mosley searchEmergency services on a boat at Agia Marina in Symi, Greece, where a body has been discovered during a search and rescue operation for TV doctor and columnist Michael Mosley, after he went missing while on holiday. Police and firefighters have been using drones to scour the island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain and is about 25 miles north of Rhodes. Picture date: Sunday June 9, 2024. PA Photo. 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. See PA story SHOWBIZ Mosley. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire (PA)

Police arrived at Agia Marina around 20 minutes after the decomposed body was discovered lying face up about 90 metres from the coastline. Agia Marina bar manager Ilias Tsavaris, 38, first saw the body alongside journalists after the island’s mayor “saw something” by the fence of the bar and alerted staff.

He said: “They saw it with the boat. The mayor came and saw something so that is when they called me and said ‘Hey they saw something go and check there’. They called me, they said ‘You know what we saw something from far away, can you go and check’ so I went there.

'Bad luck' that Greek helicopter missed body '20 times' in Michael Mosley searchA helicopter flying over the hills in Pedi, Symi, Greece, in the search for Mosley (PA)

“So when I walked up I saw something like a body to make sure. You don’t see a dead body everyday, it is not a warzone, it’s summer you are supposed to have fun and swimming. He came from Pedi OK, and he walked not through the restaurant. If he had walked through there (the bar) we would have checked the cameras."

He said “rescuers had searched that area everyday with helicopters”. The search effort has been widespread, operating in dangerous conditions and high temperatures, and has included police, firefighters with drones, Greek Red Cross workers, divers, a search dog and a helicopter.

Greek authorities shifted their focus to a treacherous mountainous area after CCTV footage from a house at the edge of a small marina in the village of Pedi showed the presenter walking towards a mountainous path at about 2pm local time on Wednesday. New footage released on Saturday also appeared to show Mosley walking unimpeded with an umbrella near to the marina.

The Mayor of Symi has reportedly said that the searchers do believe the body to be Dr Mosley's, and that they currently believe he fell a short way down a cliff. A statement from the Mayor read: "During our research, and as we were approaching a cave next to the Agia Marina beach, we were shooting along the coastline with cameras. We saw an object next to a fence on the beach and when we zoomed in we realised that it was Michael Mosley's body.

"He had probably fallen from a short cliff of about 10 metres." Police sources on the island reportedly told the BBC they believed that the body – which has still not been identified – had been there for a number of days.

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