A body has been found in the search for TV doctor Michael Mosley, who went missing on a Greek island.
The body was found close to a cave complex beside Agia Marina on Symi, around 10 metres from the sea, and did not appear to show any signs of injury, the mayor of Symi Lefteris Papakalodoukas told Sky News.
Mr Papakalodoukas said he had been in a boat on the way to search in a cave with members of the media when they saw something on the rocks above the beach.
He says they filmed as they went, then used a mobile phone to zoom in on the image, and could see it was a body lying on the rocky slope.
Separately, the mayor said that the body appeared to have fallen down a steep slope, stopping against a fence and lying face-up with a few rocks on top of it.
The body had a leather bag in one hand, according to Antonis Mystiloglou a cameraman with state TV ERT who was on the boat with the mayor.
An umbrella is also understood to have been found close to the body.
Image: A view of the area where the body of Michael Mosley was found Pic: Reuters
The area had been searched on foot by firefighters and from above via helicopter on Saturday, according to local bar manager Agia Marina, who was one of the first people to find the body.
Mr Marina went to investigate the area by the fence after something unusual was spotted in the images taken from the boat. He said: “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.”
A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, said that formal identification was pending.
A coroner from the larger island of Rhodes carried out an initial report on-site before the body was removed via boat. A post-mortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:35
Body found at ‘inaccessible’ location
Image: Emergency services lifting an empty stretcher off a boat. Pic: Yui Mok/PA
The body was found on the opposite side from the Saint Nicholas beach where Mosley had left his wife and friends to go for a walk on Wednesday.
A hike from the point Mosley was last sighted at to the beach where the body was found would normally have taken around half an hour on foot, but the extremely hot weather – reaching levels of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last few days – would have made the journey much more arduous.
Mosley’s wife, Dr Bailey Mosley, and the couple’s four children will lay flowers at the place the body was found on Monday.
Mosley’s three sons, Alex, Dan and Jack, and daughter Kate had travelled to the Greek island earlier this week to assist in the search for their father.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:13
The local cameraman who spotted Michael Mosley’s body
The alert had first been raised when the 67-year-old doctor failed to arrive back at their friends’ home in Symi Town, with an appeal and photo shared in a local Facebook group, asking “Have you seen this man?”
The presenter had reportedly set off on a walk from Saint Nikolas Beach at about 1.30pm local time.
Mosley was then captured on several CCTV cameras walking through the town of Pedi, around 1.2km away, and then near a yacht club in Marina Symi, further round the island. This was the last known sighting of him.
He did not have his mobile phone with him.
Image: Dr Michael Mosley with wife Clare. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The doctor’s agent confirmed he was missing to the PA news agency on Thursday.
Rescue teams had been working on the assumption he may have mistakenly headed towards the rocky hills behind the marina.
Michael Mosley’s career
Mosley was known for appearing on television programmes like This Morning and The One Show.
He was one of the presenters of the series Trust Me, I’m A Doctor on the BBC – and also hosted its Just One Thing health podcast.
He also lived with tapeworms in his gut for six weeks for the documentary Infested! Living With Parasites on BBC Four.
Mosley was also credited for the rising popularity of the 5:2 diet for losing weight, which involves fasting for two days per week.
He was a columnist for the Daily Mail and has made a number of films about diet and exercise.
More recently, he presented two series for Channel 4, Secrets Of Your Big Shop and Who Made Britain Fat?
His programmes have received nominations for RTS and Emmy awards, and he has previously been named “medical journalist of the year” by the British Medical Association.
Tributes poured in from fellow celebrities, including Jamie Oliver, Dr Phil Hammond, Professor Alice Roberts and Saleyha Ahsan.
Mosley’s former Trust Me I’m A Doctor co-presenter Saleyha Ahsan told Sky News Mosley was a “national treasure” who would always take time to talk to people off-stage.
She said he truly “cared about the health of the nation”, adding: “Michael’s advice, the 5:2 diet, that has really changed the approach of so many people about their health. He lived and breathed his work. He was an inspiration.”
Another of Mosley’s Trust Me, I’m A Doctor co-presenters, Dr Phil Hammond, said Mosley was always up for trying things out himself, and was fearless in his mission to improve people’s health.
Dr Hammond told Sky News: “One of the big [things] he’ll be remembered for is not just his popularising an explanation of science, but the fact that he would experiment himself… He was a person prepared to put his body on the line to test out science, and I can’t quite believe he’s gone”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:21
Dr Phil Hammond says that Dr Michael Mosley ‘will be enormously missed’
TV chef Oliver said he was “devastated” by the news, calling Mosley “a wonderfully sweet, kind and gentle man” who did “such a lot of good for public health with his TV shows and research”.
He called the TV doctor “a curious investigator, producer and presenter” who he said “changed the conversation around many public health issues for the better.” Oliver concluded: “He will be sadly missed.”
Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, called Mosley as a “hero”. The politician, who credited Mosley’s book The Fast Diet with playing a part in his 7-stone weight loss, wrote on X: “It’s hard to describe how upset I am by this news.
“Through courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people get well and healthy. I’m one of them.”
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Author, TV writer and former doctor Adam Kay said it was “desperately sad,” adding “May his memory be a blessing”.
Professor Roberts, who had known Mosley for many years, and said she had seen him at the Hay Festival just two weeks ago, wrote on X: “The fragility of life is so shocking… I can’t believe he’s gone”.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News App. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
It was in the evening that the bombing started to intensify.
Salah Jundia, his father and brothers huddled together in their home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City, trying to work out what to do.
It was too risky for them to leave at night. There were a lot of them too. Extended family living across four storeys. They decided they would wait until after dawn prayers.
The explosion tore through the building just before 5am, collapsing one storey on to the next.
Image: The aftermath of Israel’s bombing campaign in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City
Image: Salah Jundia
Jundia says he survived because pieces of bedroom furniture fell on top of him.
Then he looked for his father and brothers.
“I found one of them calling for help. I removed the rubble covering him with my hands. Then I saw another brother covered in rubble but he was dead,” he told Sky News.
Jundia added: “My father was also dead. My other brother was also dead. We got them out and that is when I saw that the whole building had collapsed.”
Over the next few hours, they scrambled to rescue who they could.
An aunt and uncle and one of their children, Shaimaa. Uncle Imad and his son Mohammad. The bodies of Montasir and Mustaf.
Image: One of the child victims of the attack on the home near the Gaza City
Image: Another one of child victims of the attack
Jundia says he could hear cries for help, but they were coming from deep in the rubble and were impossible to reach.
The rescue teams on site – civil defence they are called – did not have the kit to clear through three floors of 500 square metres, 30cm slabs of concrete.
Image: Rescuers drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble
Image: Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble near the Gaza City
In the afternoon, Jundia says Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) told rescue teams to leave as they would be resuming their bombardment.
Jundia buried the bodies he had managed to pull out but he knew 15 of his family members, 12 of them children, were still somewhere inside the rubble, still crying for help.
He made a desperate video appeal, begging the Red Cross and Arab countries to pressure Israel to grant access to the site. It was picked up on a few social media accounts.
Israel won’t allow heavy equipment into Gaza. No diggers or bulldozers, nor the fuel or generators to run them.
They say it will fall into Hamas’s hands.
It was a major sticking point during the ceasefire and it is a major issue now as the bombardment continues, given the fact that hundreds if not thousands of civilians might survive if there were the equipment to extract them.
Image: Members of Salah Jundia’s family left alive after the attack
Image: Salah Jundia and his surviving family
Civil defence trying to get to the Jundia family home over the next few days were halted because the IDF were in the vicinity. A family friend tried himself and was killed.
The footage that our camera teams have shot in Shujaiyya over the past two weeks shows how civil defence teams struggle to save those who are trapped and injured with the most rudimentary of equipment – plastering trowels, sledgehammers, ropes and small drills.
“The tight siege stops civil defence equipment from getting in,” says one.
They added: “So we are taking much longer to respond to these events. Time is a factor in getting these people out. So we call immediately for the necessary equipment to be allowed in for the civil defence to use.”
The IDF say they are investigating the circumstances around the Jundia family as a result of our enquiries.
In relation to the access of heavy equipment into Gaza, they say they work closely with international aid organisations to enable the delivery of humanitarian activities in accordance with international law.
The last contact Jundia had from beneath the rubble was a phone call from his uncle Ziad, three days after the strike.
“The line was open for 25 seconds then it went dead. We don’t know what happened. We tried to call, but there was no answer,” he says.
He and his family were displaced several times before they returned home to Shujaiyya – to Rafah in the south, then Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
Along the way, Jundia lost one brother and a nephew to Israeli bombs.
“We were happy and all the family came back. We went back to our house. It was damaged, but we improvised and we lived in it. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We are not interested in wars. But we have been gravely harmed,” he says.
China’s economy performed better than expected in the first quarter of the year – but it reflects a moment in time before the explosive trade war with the US, which has seen the world’s two biggest economies effectively decouple.
Economists had predicted that gross domestic product would grow by about 5.1% in January to March, compared with a year earlier. In the end, it grew 5.4%.
But these impressive figures obscure the very serious challenges China’s economy is facing in the wake of Donald Tump’s trade war – and it is almost certain growth will not remain this strong as the year goes on.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
It was in the evening that the bombing started to intensify.
Salah Jundia, his father and brothers huddled together in their home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City, trying to work out what to do.
It was too risky for them to leave at night. There were a lot of them too. Extended family living across four storeys. They decided they would wait until after dawn prayers.
The explosion tore through the building just before 5am, collapsing one storey on to the next.
Image: The remains of Salah Jundia’s home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City
Image: Salah Jundia
Jundia says he survived because pieces of bedroom furniture fell on top of him.
Then he looked for his father and brothers.
“I found one of them calling for help. I removed the rubble covering him with my hands. Then I saw another brother covered in rubble but he was dead,” he told Sky News.
Jundia added: “My father was also dead. My other brother was also dead. We got them out and that is when I saw that the whole building had collapsed.”
Over the next few hours, they scrambled to rescue who they could.
Image: One of the child victims of the attack on the home near the Gaza City
Image: Another one of child victims of the attack
An aunt and uncle and one of their children, Shaimaa. Uncle Imad and his son Mohammad. The bodies of Montasir and Mustaf.
Jundia says he could hear cries for help, but they were coming from deep in the rubble and were impossible to reach.
The rescue teams on site – civil defence they are called – did not have the kit to clear through three floors of 500 square metres, 30cm slabs of concrete.
Image: Rescuers drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble
Image: Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble near the Gaza City
In the afternoon, Jundia says Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) told rescue teams to leave as they would be resuming their bombardment.
Jundia buried the bodies he had managed to pull out but he knew 15 of his family members, 12 of them children, were still somewhere inside the rubble, still crying for help.
He made a desperate video appeal, begging the Red Cross and Arab countries to pressure Israel to grant access to the site. It was picked up on a few social media accounts.
Israel won’t allow heavy equipment into Gaza. No diggers or bulldozers, nor the fuel or generators to run them.
They say it will fall into Hamas’s hands.
It was a major sticking point during the ceasefire and it is a major issue now as the bombardment continues, given the fact that hundreds if not thousands of civilians might survive if there were the equipment to extract them.
Image: Members of Salah Jundia’s family left alive after the attack
Image: Salah Jundia and his surviving family
Civil defence trying to get to the Jundia family home over the next few days were halted because the IDF were in the vicinity. A family friend tried himself and was killed.
The footage that our camera teams have shot in Shujaiyya over the past two weeks shows how civil defence teams struggle to save those who are trapped and injured with the most rudimentary of equipment – plastering trowels, sledgehammers, ropes and small drills.
“The tight siege stops civil defence equipment from getting in,” says one.
They added: “So we are taking much longer to respond to these events. Time is a factor in getting these people out. So we call immediately for the necessary equipment to be allowed in for the civil defence to use.”
The IDF say they are investigating the circumstances around the Jundia family as a result of our enquiries.
In relation to the access of heavy equipment into Gaza, they say they work closely with international aid organisations to enable the delivery of humanitarian activities in accordance with international law.
The last contact Jundia had from beneath the rubble was a phone call from his uncle Ziad, three days after the strike.
“The line was open for 25 seconds then it went dead. We don’t know what happened. We tried to call, but there was no answer,” he says.
He and his family were displaced several times before they returned home to Shujaiyya – to Rafah in the south, then Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
Along the way, Jundia lost one brother and a nephew to Israeli bombs.
“We were happy and all the family came back. We went back to our house. It was damaged, but we improvised and we lived in it. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We are not interested in wars. But we have been gravely harmed,” he says.