Esther Dingley: Search halted due to bad weather

A search for a British hiker missing in the Pyrenees has been halted due to bad weather.

Esther Dingley, 37, last messaged her partner Dan Colegate via WhatsApp on 22 November, when she was on top of Pic de Sauvegarde on the France-Spain border.

She had been due to return from her solo walking trek on 25 November.

Mr Colegate said police were now probing "non-accident" options. Police said bad weather in Huesca, in north-eastern Spain, had halted the search.

Officers are treating the disappearance as a missing person case and have circulated posters of Ms Dingley in the area.

Mr Colegate said the case had been turned over to a "specialised judicial unit in France".

"This means they will be looking at other options beyond a mountain accident," he said.

Ms Dingley had been travelling in the couple's camper van while Mr Colegate stayed at a farm in the Gascony area of France.

The weekend she set out on the trek, the couple's story about their adventures around Europe in the camper van since 2014 was published by BBC News.

Ms Dingley had started walking from Benasque in Spain and had planned to spend 22 November, when she was last heard from, at Refuge de Venasque in France, Mr Colegate said.

The couple had lived in Durham before deciding to pack up their lives and go travelling after Mr Colegate nearly died from an infection.

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