British man goes missing in Spain after ‘arguing with wife’ sparking police hunt

Spain has mobilised its mountain rescue team as part of the ongoing search for a British man missing since Thursday. 

The man was reported missing at 11.10am on Thursday by a ‘family member’, the regional emergency coordination centre said.

The 48-year-old, who has not been named, was last seen rowing with his wife in the north-east province of León. 

Police had said they had concerns for the missing man’s safety after he is understood to have argued with his wife, leaving her in a garage.

He later dumped his personal belongings and abandoned his vehicle. 

Castile and León’s emergency services said his vehicle was found empty in the town of Las Salas.

The mountain rescue experts, members of the Civil Guard’s Greim unit, are reported to be from the same team that searched for British teenager Jay Slater after he went missing last month from a village in Tenerife. 

Drones, a helicopter and a sniffer dog are now combing León for the missing man.

The man’s wife has described him as a keen mountaineer who had been practising the sport during their stay in the region. 

‘The search today is focusing on the banks of the Esla River and the area around the village of Las Salas, where the missing man’s vehicle was found,’ the regional centre said today.

A command post has also been set up in Las Salas, a mountain village where the man is said to have dumped his personal effects, including climbing equipment and his personal documents. 

The nationality of the man’s wife has not been disclosed. It is also not known whether the couple live in Spain or were travelling to the country on holiday. 

Sources described their concerns as ‘maximum’, given the way the missing man was behaving before his disappearance. 

It follows just a month after a missing British hiker was found dead on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees mountain range. 

Meanwhile, the search for 17-year-old apprentice bricklayer Jay continues, though the mountain rescue experts are understood to have already been asked to step down as part of that operation.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.