SEARCH dogs are continued to be employed in a search to trace a missing man in the Highlands.
It comes as police scaled back back volunteer searches in their bid to find Lachlan Simpson, a chef from Embo, near Dornoch, who has not been seen since he left a dance in the town at 1.30am on July 26.
Police say that as the search for the 22-year-old continues they will continue to utilise "specialist search resources" over the next few days with the use of dog search teams.
Hundreds of volunteers have joined police teams, search dogs, coastguard and an RAF mountain rescue in searches.
Mr Simpson was last seen after a dance at the Sutherland Show in Dornoch in the early hours of Sunday.
Police said co-ordinated volunteer searches had been concluded but investigations were continuing.
Chief Inspector Iain MacLelland said: “I would once again take this opportunity to thank the local community and members of the public for their continued support and assistance.
“Although no further volunteer searches are planned at this time, police enquiries and searches remain ongoing. Today we once again have Specialist Search Officers and the Police Scotland Dog Unit searching throughout the area.
“The dogs are highly-trained and to ensure their focus is fully on tracing Lachlan, we would ask members of the public to refrain from approaching them whilst they are actively searching."
Chief Inspector Colin Gough has previously said it was known that Mr Simpson had been drinking in Dornoch on Saturday afternoon and into the evening. He had left the village to go down to the show ground on Dornoch Links and was last seen speaking to friends.
Dozens of volunteers went through outlying parts of Dornoch and an area known locally as The Links over the weekend as part of the search.
Mr Simpson is described as six feet in height, of slim/medium build with short fair hair. He was wearing a green and white top.
Police Scotland are urging members of the public who have any information, "no matter how small it may seem", to contact them on 101.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here