Missing hiker: French police reject UK press 'speculation'

French police have rejected a series of reports in the British press about the disappearance of a British woman in the Pyrénées.

Esther Dingley, from Durham, went missing two weeks ago, but searches of the area from several elite mountain rescue units have failed to locate her. They have been halted because of bad weather.

She had been due to return home from a trek from Spain to France on November 25, but has not been heard from since November 22, when she sent a photo of herself from the summit of Pic de Sauvegarde (2,738m) to her partner.

It has been suggested in the British press that the 37-year-old travel blogger may have been kidnapped, fallen into an icy lake, or attacked by a bear. But police investigating her disappearance insist such reports are nothing more than speculation.

"To date, we have no potential leads on the missing hiker Esther Dingley. Any leads that have currently been reported are simply hypothetical and have no fundamental value at this stage, ’’ a police spokesperson said. "We don’t even know if she is on the French border or on the Spanish border.

"We are not even certain that she was on the mountain at the time that she disappeared. Some people claimed to have seen her, but nothing would have stopped her from going elsewhere or turning around.

"If she is indeed in the mountains it is very unlikely that she is still alive. Having said that, we have had cases in the same area where we have found missing individuals eight to 10 days after."

Asked if there may be any truth in UK press reports on a possible bear attack, the spokesperson said: "To my knowledge this would be the first time in history that a bear attacks and kills a person in that particular area of the Pyrenees."

The spokesperson said that conditions at that altitude made searches difficult. "You must understand that at this time of the year, the weather makes it hard for us to completely check every area. It’s very unstable and there’s a lot of snow. It won’t be until the weather is better, most likely in spring that we will be able to say that we have covered all grounds of where she was supposedly missing.’’

Police also had a warning to other hikers thinking of attempting to hike in the Pyrenees at this time of year.

‘’I know that the focus is to find this woman. However, I have no choice but to realise that even the most experienced hikers that are born and bred in that area don’t go as high as she did at this time of the year. She has put herself in great danger by attempting something like this. And she has also broken [safety and lockdown] law[s] doing so."