Sidney Box: Search for 93-year-old enters fourth day

Mr Box, who lived at home in Earley, until he was last seen on Thursday, is 93 and has dementia, police said

Dozens of people have gathered to take part in the search for a 93-year-old man who has been missing since Thursday.

Sidney Box, from Earley in Berkshire, has dementia and walks with a limp, Thames Valley Police said

At the weekend Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue (BLSAR) searched a lake at a nature reserve near to where Mr Box was last seen.

BLSAR said on Monday it was searching in the Lower Earley area.

Mr Box, who is also known as Donald or Don, was last seen on Silverdale Road in on Thursday at 20:20 GMT.

He is described as 5ft 5ins tall, of slim build and was last seen wearing a black dressing gown with a red stripe, a blue jumper and grey trousers. Police said it is possible he was not wearing shoes.

A briefing to the people gathered at the church in Earley heard Thames Valley Police explain a specialist officer would coordinate members of the public into search teams on Monday afternoon.

Dozens gathered at Brookside Church in Earley as the search for Sidney Box moved into its fourth day

His family, who have appealed for help in finding him, said over the weekend that not knowing where he was "is the worst experience anybody could ever go through".

Malcolm Parker said BLSAR, which specialises in searching for vulnerable missing people, received the original call from Thames Valley Police on Friday.

He said water specialists spent the weekend at the Maiden Erlegh Nature Reserve, searching a lake.

Water search teams spent the weekend at Maiden Erlegh Nature Reserve, BLSAR's Malcolm Parker said

Nine members of the search and rescue team would continue looking for Mr Box on Monday, he said.

"It's a mixed area, there's a lot of urban housing, gardens, garages but very quickly you've got fields, trees and ditches and heaven knows what," he added.

At the scene - BBC reporter Katherine Bett

Around one hundred people are waiting at Brookside Church in Earley to get more information from police about how they can help.

A lot of people found out about the missing person from Facebook and have spent the weekend walking around the area they live.

Those who live in Earley have told me it's rocked the whole community.

But they are not surprised at the number of people who have come together today to want to do something to help.

Many people have told me they're thinking about their own older relatives in this situation - they wouldn't want this kind of thing to happen to their dad or grandad - so just want to do anything they can to help.

Mr Parker said the search teams would be concentrating on areas Mr Box could have got to.

"What we do is look at the map, it lends itself to obvious areas, we look at potential routes around where someone is last seen.

"Having more eyes on the ground, that's fantastic but searching some areas can be tricky and dangerous. We ask if anyone sees anything that they call the police.

"We go through an awful lot of training, we don't want any more casualties," he said.