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Dr Michael Mosley: After a painstaking four-day search, TV doctor’s body was found just metres from safety at beach resort
It is the strangest of scenes at the tiny resort on Agia beach.
Holidaygoers spread out on sunbeds, people swim in the Mediterranean turquoise sea and the only noise is from waves lapping up against the rocks.
A wired fence surrounds the resort, the only access at a small gate by the sea on the northern tip.
Just outside the perimeter, two men stand over a body, which Greek officials say is that of Dr Michael Mosley.
A major search operation was launched to find the doctor
The body found in the search for the renowned doctor is yet to be formally identified
He’d been missing for four days and police said they believed he had walked north from Pedi marina in the direction of Agia beach.
For four days, ground search teams and a helicopter had painstakingly searched this area. They were convinced Dr Mosley was walking towards the resort.
Dr Mosley went missing on Wednesday when he failed to return from a walk
In the end it was a cameraman from a Greek television channel who found him.
Antonios Mystilovlou told us he was on a boat this morning and thought he had seen something in the rocks.
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Who was Michael Mosley?
He returned to the marina about 10 minutes away and looked more closely at his footage before realising what he was looking it.
A coastguard boat took the body to Rhodes for a post-mortem
“There was the body. He was laying down with his hand on his belly and he’s carrying his bag in his other hand,” he told Sky News.
Mr Mystilovlou said the body was about 50 metres from the sea.
“I think he was planning to get down and got tired, dizzy, I don’t know… sat down and fainted, that’s my guess.
“This is a very, very sad ending for him and his family.”
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Cameraman spotted body of TV doctor
Mr Mystilovlou holds back tears as he acknowledges the grief this news will no doubt bring to Dr Mosley’s family.
It is the sentiment echoed by a man in charge of the volunteer crisis rescue team. As he perches on a sun bed metres away from the body, a Greek coastguard official consoles him.
“A man died but it took so long to find him,” the rescue team chief says.
Sadiya Chowdhury at the scene of the recovery efforts
Just after 2pm, a coroner arrives from Rhodes. She and her team take photos of the scene before carefully wrapping the body in an orange cloth.
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A coastguard boat is waiting at the shore to take the body to Rhodes for a post-mortem and formal identification.
It takes about half an hour to gently lift it on to a stretcher and carry it 50 metres down to the sea.
A journey Dr Mosley never ended up making himself.