A body has been discovered in a rocky area beside Agia Marina during the search for TV doctor and columnist Michael Mosley, who went missing while on holiday on the Greek island of Symi.

Volunteers and emergency workers had been searching a treacherous mountainous part of the island on Saturday after the 67-year-old TV personality disappeared during a walk on Wednesday.

British journalists and a hospitality worker were the first to see the body found during the search.

It was discovered beneath a fence that runs around the bar on Agia Marina beach on the Greek island.

The bar is surrounded by hilly and rocky terrain that runs down to the sea.

The body, along with an umbrella, was found around 90 metres inland from the coastline.

Agia Marina bar manager Ilias Tsavaris, 38, first saw the body after the island’s mayor “saw something” by the fence of the bar and alerted staff.

“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.

“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”.


Speaking yesterday, his wife, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, said the days since he has been missing have been the “longest and most unbearable days” for her and her children.

Emergency crews called off the search on Saturday evening as night fell due to the mountainous area they have been searching being too dangerous to explore at night, but it resumed on Sunday morning.

Greek authorities shifted their focus to the 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 showed Mosley walking unimpeded with an umbrella near to the marina.

Mosley’s four children had joined their mother on Symi to help with the search efforts.

In a statement shared on Saturday, his wife said: “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”

The mayor of Symi, Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas, had vowed to continue the extensive search operation – which has involved police, firefighters with drones, Greek Red Cross workers, divers, a search dog and a helicopter operating in dangerous conditions and high temperatures..

The mayor said the area where Mosley is believed to have travelled through is “difficult to pass” and is “only rocks”, as well as being populated by “loads” of snakes.

Speaking through a translator, the mayor of 22 years questioned how anyone could survive in the heat that topped 40C on the day Mosley disappeared.

Mr Papakaloudoukas said he hoped Mosley would be found “safe and alive”, adding: “All the community is so sad about this, (it has) never happened before.”

A woman reported seeing Mosley, known for popularising the 5:2 diet and for his appearances on The One Show and This Morning, in the Pedi area on Wednesday.

A local Facebook group said Mosley went for a walk from Saint Nikolas beach at about 1.30pm Greek time (11.30am BST) on Wednesday.