Colleagues of an RSPCA inspector who went missing while trying to rescue sea birds from a cliff are continuing to hope he is found alive.
Mike Reid, 54, vanished after he went to the aid of around 30 gannets stranded on rocks near Penzance, Cornwall, shortly before Storm Imogen's hurricane force winds battered Britain.
Thousands were left without power and several people were injured by debris sent flying during the latest storm's 100mph gusts.
Mr Reid's colleagues joined the hunt and said they were desperately hoping for good news after the alarm was raised on Monday when he failed to return home from duty.
Dermot Murphy, the RSPCA's assistant director for the inspectorate, said: "Mike has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to the cause close to his heart.
"His disappearance while doing the job he loved is a tragedy."
The RSPCA's acting chief executive David Canavan said: "I am heartbroken at Mike's disappearance.
"Our frontline officers face many challenges and Mike has always shown courage and compassion in his determination to do his duty to help animals in need.
"Today it is the turn of the RSPCA family to offer our support to Mike's family, friends and colleagues during these darkest of days.
"I would like to offer our sincere thanks to the thousands of people who have sent messages of support for Mike, his family and his RSPCA colleagues during this time."
Earlier this week Mr Reid's daughter Jenna paid tribute to her father, describing him as her "hero" and the "best person I've ever known".
In a Facebook post, Ms Reid wrote: "Unfortunately, and it pains and breaks my heart to say, that my amazing dad will not be coming home.
"This world is a cruel place to take such a wonderful man from it, a true loss. He was one in a million."
She added: "This has been the worst and hardest time in mine and my family's life. We will be empty without him, he completed us."
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