Search for Briton Aslan King missing in Australia

  • Published
Aslan KingImage source, Victoria Police
Image caption,

Aslan King went missing early on Saturday after suffering a suspected seizure

A search has failed to find any trace of a British man missing in the Australian state of Victoria.

Aslan King, 25, went missing early on Saturday morning after suffering a suspected seizure during a camping trip.

Victoria Police said officers searched for Mr King on Sunday using a helicopter, boats, horses, motorcycles and sniffer dogs.

Mr King, an illustrator from Brighton, relocated to Australia two weeks ago.

'Hit head'

His friends and family had described his disappearance as "completely out of character".

Mr King is said to have hit his head on the ground before getting up quickly and rushing into thick bushland surrounding the campsite where he and four friends had been staying.

The site is near the town of Princeton, beside cliffs on the Victorian coast near the tourist site known as the Twelve Apostles.

Officers told local media they were concentrating on a radius of 300m around the campsite, but said the search was difficult because of the thick vegetation, rocky clifftops and deep coastal waters in the region.

Image source, Nine News Australia
Image caption,

Officers searched for Mr King on Sunday using a helicopter, horses, boats, motorcycles and sniffer dogs

Image source, Nine News Australia
Image caption,

Mr King had been on a coastal camping trip when he disappeared

The area is also known to contain a large population of deadly tiger snakes.

Sgt Danny Brown, of Victoria Police, said thermal imaging sensors had detected no trace of Mr King, but they might be used again as the search continued.

Image source, Nine News Australia
Image caption,

An air and sea search has failed to find any sign of Mr King

"You're using every sense, whether that be eyes, ears and touch as well," he told Nine newspapers, adding the heat sensors would make "a massive difference, because we're going to find things in areas that the eye can't see".

"Some of this scrub, you have to get on hands and knees to move through it," he added.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said: "Our staff are seeking further information following the disappearance of a British man near Princeton, Australia, and are in contact with the Australian police."

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