Police hunt for British man reported missing in the US

Police in the US are searching for a British man reported missing from a beach in California.

Kim Gordon, from Inverness, was reported missing on Monday from Monastery Beach in Carmel, by his 17-year-old son who said his dad had gone swimming.

Monterey County Sheriff's Office captain John Thornburg said the beach is "dangerous".

He said dive teams searched the water for two days but found no trace of the missing man.

US officials now believe he may still be alive.

Mr Thornburg told the Press Association: "The whole thing started on February 25, which was a Monday.

"We got a 911 call saying that he had gone swimming off one of our beaches and hadn't returned.

"This was 7.15pm, which was a little unusual to go swimming because it was dark.

"At that time we treated it as a missing person, as a swimmer in distress, so the fire department, the sheriff's office and state parks began searching.

"Monastery Beach is the area where he was reported to have gone. It's a very dangerous beach, getting out of the water is very difficult.

"For the next two days we put dive teams into the Pacific Ocean there to try and locate him and he wasn't."

He said when the incident was further examined it began to be treated as suspicious and added "we've got to a point now that we don't believe he went into the ocean, we don't think he went swimming".

He said: ""We can't prove that he went into the water."

Mr Thornburg believes the pair were on a two-week break in the States and flew in to Los Angeles, but said there was "no indication" of how they got to Monterey County, where they were staying or if they had a vehicle.

He said the missing man's son was taken into protective custody during the rescue operation and has since returned to Scotland.

Inquiries in the US are continuing and the country's Marshals Service is now involved in the case.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Our staff are assisting the family of a British man who is missing in the United States and are in touch with the local authorities".