Spanish police are hunting a British man after his van was found abandoned at a viewpoint off the Mediterranean coast.
The 24-year-old was named locally last night as Matthew Chapman from Manchester, almost a month on from his family reporting him missing on April 30.
Earlier this week police launched a two-day search near the popular resort of Tossa de Mar involving a helicopter and drones before calling it off late on Thursday.
Mr Chapman had travelled to France on May 1 on the Eurotunnel and spent time in Portugal and Spain before his mobile phone signal petered out around 60 miles north of Barcelona.
A spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police force confirmed a two-day search for the missing Brit was undertaken.
She added: ‘It was a land, sea and air search which took place on Wednesday and Thursday.
‘The investigation into the missing man’s whereabouts is continuing.’
Officers are said to be keeping an open mind on what could have happened to Mr Chapman who according to Spanish reports had economic problems and was struggling to keep his car valet firm afloat.
Earlier this week police launched a two-day search near the popular resort of Tossa de Mar (pictured) involving a helicopter and drones before calling it off late on Thursday
A spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police force confirmed a two-day search for the missing Brit was undertaken. Pictured: Officers of the Catalan regional police force (file image)
It not clear what Catalan police are now doing as part of their investigation.
The Mossos d’Esquadra force also led the probe into rugby player and X Factor star Levi Davis’ disappearance in Barcelona.
The last confirmed sighting of Mr Davis was of him leaving an Irish pub in the Catalan capital on the night of October 29 2022 after taking a boat from Ibiza with just £35 in his pocket and no change of clothes.
The port search and another in the Llobregat Delta, one of Catalonia’s most important wetland zones near Barcelona where police said at the time sea currents could have taken his body or items of clothing, failed to yield any clues.
They were organised after four members of cruise liner MSC Bellissima, which docked in Barcelona around eight hours after the pub CCTV sighting, said they had seen a man in the sea wearing the same light-coloured top as Levi and shouting for help in English.
A lifebuoy was thrown to him and coastguards in Barcelona mobilised their helicopter called Helimer 203 and a vessel called Salvamar Mintaka.
A boat operated by firefighters was also sent to the scene along with police and Red Cross vessels but they were stood down after it was confirmed no-one was missing from the cruise liner and police confirmed no-one had been reported missing in port waters or in the sea off Barcelona.
A British tourist went missing at Alicante airport at the end of March after a stag do in Benidorm before being found.
Jason Taylor went missing without his phone from the Alicante airport on Saturday
Jason Taylor, 36, vanished as he waited for a flight back to Birmingham, sparking a police manhunt which had a happy ending nearly four days later on April 1 when he was spotted walking along a nearby beach.
Police sources said after he was found that the fact he didn’t have his mobile phone on him had caused him extra complications.
Tossa de Mar is about 60 miles north of Barcelona and the same distance south of the French border.
