The search for missing celebrity doctor Michael Mosley resumed on Friday, two days after he went missing while hiking on the Greek island of Symi.

The British TV personality vanished on Wednesday on a walk from the island’s St Nicholas Beach, known in Greek as Agios Nikolaos, to the small holiday resort of Pedi.

The mayor of the small island, which is part of the Dodecanese chain near the Turkish coast, said it was “impossible” he was still in the area because it was small and easy for rescuers to check.

“It is a very small, controlled area, full of people,” said Eleftherios Papakalodoukas.

“So if something happened to him there, we would have found him by now,” he told the BBC.

He said he thought it probable that Dr Mosley had either “followed another path” or had somehow slipped and tumbled into the sea.

Drones, sniffer dogs, helicopters and emergency personnel are taking part in the search for Dr Mosley, 67, who is married with four children.

Conditions are challenging – the island has been hit by a heat wave, with temperatures up to 48C forecast on Friday.

On the day Dr Mosley disappeared, temperatures reached 40C.

The terrain around St Nicholas Beach is rocky, steep and potentially dangerous.

The alarm was raised by Dr Mosley’s wife, Dr Clare Bailey, 62, after he failed to return from his walk on Wednesday.

The last known photograph of him shows him in blue shorts, a blue shirt and blue baseball cap, standing on a beach and holding a small rucksack.

An appeal was launched on a local Facebook page for expatriates for any information as to his whereabouts.

“Have you seen this man? He set off to walk from St Nicholas Beach at about 1330 and failed to make it home,” it read.

Dr Mosley is a well-known face on British television and also writes a column for the Daily Mail.

He has made programmes about exercise and diet and has advocated intermittent fasting regimes as a weight loss technique.

He lived with tapeworms inside his body for six weeks after infesting himself for a BBC Four documentary called Infested! Living With Parasites.