Tom Doherty – latest: Urgent search for missing doctor lost in Pyrenees

Dad-of-four Tom Doherty is said to be a keen and experienced hiker, who has spent most of his time in France since retiring a decade ago.

He has four children with his wife, Anne.

Mr Doherty is also a grandfather, after his daughter, Rachel, whose quotes we shared earlier, had a child with his son-in-law, Tim Hughes.

A respected consultant of tropical medicine who worked in the NHS, Mr Doherty has worked around the world and specialised in Malaria, his family said.

One of his former colleagues, Dr Emily Shaw, described him in a post on X, formerly Twitter, as a “dear missing friend” and “former NHS colleague”.

“His family are desperately worried. All our thoughts are with them and him,” she wrote.

ICU consultant Jim Down posted: “A lovely lovely man. All thoughts with Tom Doherty and his family.”

French authorities are searching urgently for the missing grandfather and have called in helicopters and dogs to lead the search.

But conditions are difficult, with foggy weather making locating Mr Doherty far more difficult.

A picture from yesterday shows a search team vehicle shrouded in fog, with visibility appearing to be no further than around 20 metres.

The search party has located Mr Doherty’s tent, and his car which was found near Pouech de Gerac.

According to X posts by a friend of one of Tom’s daughters, authorities initially believed he was last seen on Tuesday at 12:30pm near Etang de la Piede.

But that theory has now been scrapped, with his family and search officials now believing it was a different person.

It is now over 60 hours since Tom Doherty sent the last messages to his family, saying he had “fallen and cannot move”.

The urgent search operation, including a helicopter, dogs, and Mr Doherty’s family, has been underway for over two days.

But there has been no update as of this morning, as the family and authorities continue to search for the 67-year-old retired doctor.

Read the full report here:

A screenshot has emerged of the messages Mr Doherty sent to his family when he went missing.

“Help”, he said at 7:07pm on Tuesday evening.

“I’ve fallen and cannot [m]ove,” he added, before his concerned family told each other they were struggling to get through to him.

Here is the full exchange:

A 67-year-old British doctor on a hiking trip in France has gone missing for three days, after messaging his family to say he’d had a fall.

Tom Doherty was hiking and camping near Col d’Escots in the French Pyrenees when his family lost contact with him on Tuesday.

Helicopters and dogs have been drafted in to lead the search and two members of Mr Dohert’s family – his wife and one of his daughters – have travelled to the area to assist.