Authorities have confirmed a sighting of Michael Mosley, along a treacherous part of the island of Symi.
Search crews have scrambled to the area, situated between the towns of Gialos and Pedi, to try and locate Dr. Mosley
"It is the first solid lead that we have and the entire weight of the search is now shifting to that area," a senior police official said.
He said investigators spotted Dr. Mosley from footage of surveillance cameras they have been surveying since Wednesday when the popular TV presenter went missing after a morning swim at the beach of St. Nikolas.
He left there at 1:30 pm to hike back to his home near Gialos, amid scorching temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.
"The footage pinpoints him along the road between Pedi and Gialos, meaning he decided to walk all the way home despite being advised to trek about a kilometre to the first town of Pedi and then, take some means of transport to the Gialos" the senior police officer said.
"He probably lost his way and ended up in this windy, uncharted path that links the two bays with a craggy mountain."
The sighting was recorded on Wednesday at around 2pm, about half an hour after the TV presenter left the beach to hike back home.
A sighting reported on Thursday was discredited after the TV presenter’s wife said the man in the video was not her husband.
Efforts to retrace Dr. Mosley’s path commenced on Wednesday evening along St Nicholas Beach on the island of Symi, yet he remains unlocated. The search expanded on Thursday with the deployment of drones and a rescue team. An appeal for information was broadcasted through a local Symi Facebook group, accompanied by a photo of Dr. Mosley clad in a blue polo, cap, and sunglasses.
Friday’s confirmed sightings came with the police’s release of images of Dr. Mosley walking outside a taverna in the village of Pedi, holding an umbrella against the sun.
Dr. Mosley is well-known in Britain for his regular appearances on television and radio and for his column in the Daily Mail newspaper. He is known outside the U.K. for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet,” which he co-authored with journalist Mimi Spencer. The “5:2 diet” set out how people can lose weight fast by minimizing their calorie intake for two days in a week while eating healthily on the other five.