In a tragic turn of events, the Mayor of Symi has confirmed that a body believed to be that of the missing TV presenter Michael Mosley was found on the island.
The grim discovery was made in a rugged area adjacent to Agia Marina on Symi this Sunday, following an intensive search effort by emergency services. The body is suspected to have been there for several days.
The body was located by search teams using camera equipment. No formal ID has been made public.
Mayor Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas provided an update on Sunday morning, stating: “During our search, 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,” The Mirror reports.
Agia Marina bar manager Ilias Tsavaris, 38, first saw the body up close alongside foreign journalists. He said the mayor alerted him after he “saw something” from a boat.
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.”
Earlier in the week, drones were deployed as part of the extensive search and rescue operation on Symi, which is among Greece’s Dodecanese Islands.
Mosley, celebrated for his work on and This Morning, was vacationing with his wife Clare when he went missing.
The extensive search for Dr Mosley, involving the Red Cross, police, firefighters and his own family, tragically led to the discovery. It’s understood that on Sunday morning, a body was discovered by the search team, accompanied by a purple umbrella, near Agia Marina on the Greek island, though formal identification has yet to be confirmed.
British journalists and a local hospitality worker were among the first to spot the body found during the exhaustive search. The grim discovery was made beneath a fence encircling the bar in Agia Marina, an area characterised by its rugged hills and rocky terrain sloping down towards the sea.
The body was located approximately 90 metres from the shore, with an umbrella nearby. According to bar staff, helicopters have been scouring the region “every day”.
After CCTV footage emerged from a residence at the edge of Pedi’s marina showing the TV presenter heading towards a mountainous trail around 2pm on Wednesday, Greek officials redirected their efforts to search this perilous area.
Additional footage released on Saturday also seemed to capture Mosley, umbrella in hand, close to the marina.