Michael Mosley live updates: TV doctor's body found during search ...

Below the path guarded by local police, holidaymakers swam and a barman mixed cocktails, adding a surreal edge to the scene but one which confirmed its destination as a beautyspot loved by British tourists until now.

Straw-topped sun umbrellas stood sentinel above sunbathers and couples drank wine in the shade of the restaurant where the taxi boats delivered swimmers from Symi and Pedi once an hour.

Behind the area along the path where the body lay guarded by police, more officers sat in a fenced-off area waiting for the coroner to arrive at 2pm.

Jannis Volas, who volunteers for the mountain rescue service and who has been leading the tireless search for the last four days accompanied by his wife, said it was a very sad day for them.

“We hoped to find him alive, I feel very sad that we have found him dead. It looks like he slipped on the path.

“That means he did not walk along the front of the water like you could do, he was walking over the mountain close to the iron fence.

“We were searching 50 metres from that spot yesterday,” he says.

Several CCTV cameras line the roof of the single bar in the bay but there was no sighting of Mosely on them when they were checked by Mr Volas days ago.

Speaking to Sky News, Michael Mosley’s former co-presenter Saleyha Ahsan paid tribute to the missing TV doctor.

“He lived and breathed his work. He was an inspiration. I hate even saying was. Is an inspiration,” she said.

“He really expanded medicine. He made it accessible to so many and so doable and really in reach and touchable,” she added.

Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, described Michael Mosley as a “hero” after a body, which is yet to be formally identified, was found during a search for the missing doctor and broadcaster, known for popularising the 5:2 diet.

“It’s hard to describe how upset I am by this news,” Mr Watson said posting on Twitter, formerly X.

“Through courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people get well and healthy. I’m one of them.

“He was a hero to me. He will be deeply missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Mr Watson said in an interview after losing around 7st that Mosley’s The Fast Diet book was part of his weight-loss regime.

A police officer working at the scene where the body was found at Agia Marina on Symi, fell on the rocky terrain during his work and was carried off in a stretcher.

Agia Marina bar manager Ilias Tsavaris, 38, first saw the body found during the search for Michael Mosley on the Greek island of Symi, alongside journalists, after the island’s mayor “saw something” by the fence of the bar and alerted staff.

“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.

“So when I walked up I saw something like a body to make sure. You don’t see a dead body everyday, it is not a warzone, it’s summer you are supposed to have fun and swimming.

“He came from Pedi OK, and he walked not through the restaurant. If he had walked through there (the bar) we would have checked the cameras.

He said “rescuers had searched that area everyday with helicopters”.