Esther Dingley: Partner baffled by no signs of her

Daniel Colegate has walked about 700 miles searching for Esther Dingley

The partner of a British hiker who went missing in the Pyrenees says he is "baffled" at the lack of signs of her.

French and Spanish police carried out a large search for Esther Dingley on Thursday but found nothing.

Daniel Colegate, 38, said he has walked about 700 miles in the area carrying out his own searches for his partner, who disappeared in November.

He said he is "yet to find a place where somebody would completely vanish".

Daniel Colegate has tracked all his walks in the search for Mis Dingley

Mr Colegate last spoke to his partner of 20 years when she was atop the Pic De Sauvegarde shortly after 16:00 on 22 November.

After Thursday's major search involving helicopters and about 30 officers on both sides of the border, Spanish police said they will carry out "sporadic" searches for the missing hiker.

Mr Colegate, who was staying at a farm in France when his partner went missing, has been conducting solo searches since April after the winter snow eased.

He said he has "continued doubts" about the theory she had an accident, adding: "Not because I doubt the possibility of an accident, far from it, but because in all my miles of walking I am yet to find a place where somebody would completely vanish.

Esther Dingley had been due to walk down the Venasque Valley (just left of the centre of the picture and pictured from the French side) from the Pic de Sauvegarde above it

"This, combined with the good weather she had, Esther's habit of following paths which are well made and easy to follow in the area and the good mobile signal just beyond her last known location, are the reasons I remain baffled to explain a straightforward mountain accident."

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Colegate also said he did not believe she had vanished deliberately or taken her own life, adding: "Esther would not leave her family or myself in the dark like this."

Mr Colegate told the paper kidnap was a possibility, adding: "A horrifying prospect but it does mean there's a part of me in my gut that feels Esther could still be out there alive."

He appealed for anyone who was in the area at the time, "no matter how obscure or trivial it might seem", to report to LBT Global who are handling Ms Dingley's case.

The couple lived in Durham before setting off on a campervan tour of Europe in 2014.