Michael Mosley has been confirmed dead by police. The 67-year-old doctor went missing on Wednesday evening and a body was found on Sunday morning.
The body was discovered by a local with an umbrella near some caves known locally as The Abyss, but it had been awaiting formal identification.
Petros Vassilakis, a senior police official, confirmed the body was Dr Mosley, while sources told the Mail that he was identified by his personal items and clothes.
It was also reported that Dr Mosley’s children were 350ft away from where his body was found when they retraced his steps on Saturday.
Tributes have now poured in from his fellow TV friends, with Jeremy Vine calling him an “amazing man” who was “so rare”, adding: “We’re all going to miss him so much.”
An organge stretcher has since been carried out of Agia Marina by uniformed emergency services following reports of a body on Sunday morning.
The TV presenter disappeared while walking along a coastal route on a Greek island. He is understood to have walked home alone around 1.30pm after “growing tired.”
Mosley and his wife Dr Clare Bailey are understood to have been staying at a villa in Symi’s main harbour. When he set off on his walk, temperatures rose to a scorching mid-thirties and it should have taken him 25 minutes to complete the kilometre route.
Bar manager Illis Tsavaris said he found the body after being alerted by the island’s mayor. 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.”
Michael is best known for being a famous TV presenter, having starred in several BBC and Channel 4 documentaries. He is also a regular guest on The One Show on BBC One and hosts the podcast, Just One Thing.
Many celebrities have paid emotional tributes to the TV presenter, including Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer and Anne Diamond. BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine initially expressed his concern when Michael disappeared, saying that he was “praying” that he would be found soon.
Friends had sent out pleas on Facebook seeking help in search of the missing doctor, leading to many theories as to what could have happened to him. The leading theory is that Michael could have fallen into the sea.