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Police searching for missing Victoria Taylor recover fresh CCTV from bus station as sonar is used to scour river and friends vow 'we won't give up'

J.Smith43 min ago
North Yorkshire Police are intensifying their efforts to locate Victoria Taylor, the Yorkshire mother from Malton who has now been missing for eight days.

As the desperate attempts to locate Victoria enters its second week, authorities are now particularly focusing their search on the River Derwent, where her personal belongings were discovered by the riverbank.

In new footage, North Yorkshire Police can be seen searching along the stretch of river between Malton and Low Hutton with sonar technology and underwater cameras.

Sonar equipment can potentially provide rescuers with extremely detailed images of waterways, with its acoustic beams reflecting of any objects found on the river bed and providing a vivid display of data to search teams on the surface.

It has been used to great effect by other forces in recent times, with fisherman Thomas Stoddart located in just two days by Police Scotland using the technology last Christmas .

Underwater cameras can also greatly aid rescuers search attempts by providing clear imagery of what lies beneath the waters surface along the roughly three mile long stretch of river.

Furthermore, members of the North Yorkshire Police department were observed searching the river in kayaks and motorized boats on Monday morning.

These renewed search efforts along the local waterways intensified on Monday due to fears that rescue teams may see their attempts hindered in the coming days due to forecasts of heavy rain and a resulting rise in water levels.

In another potential boost to search attempts, North Yorkshire Police recovered fresh CCTV from a Malton bus station, which is believed to be more recent than the footage recovered from a local BP Garage.

The footage is said to show Victoria walking past the bus station on last Monday morning, in what are now her last known movements.

As authorities continue in their attempt to locate Victoria, a Facebook page set up by close friend Charlotte Cundill has now gained over 8,000 members.

Charlotte posted in the group, called 'The Search for Victoria Taylor', on Monday morning saying that she 'won't be giving up' on finding her 'beautiful' friend.

Another person posted in the group; 'I really cannot stop thinking about your beautiful friend. I know I don't know her personally like thousands of others, but she has really touched our hearts. I pray she is safe and found really soon for you all, sending love to you.'

In addition to local police's search attempts along the River Derwent, residents of Malton and friends of Victoria have been searching the small market town and putting missing posters up.

The red posters can be seen all across the local community, including on the outside of St Leonard and St Mary Catholic Church in Malton - where it's believed she hoped to marry fiancé Matthew Williams.

Victoria's sisters Emma and Heidi said in a statement on Friday that her disappearance had left them "distraught and lost."

'We currently feel sick, distraught and lost following the disappearance of Vixx, but we are trying to focus on the children in the family to maintain a sense of routine at this difficult time,' the sisters added, before going on thank the emergency services and volunteers who continue to search for Victoria.

'We are eternally grateful for the support that they have given to us,' the statement concluded.

Victoria, who is originally from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is described as a white woman who is approximately 5ft six inches tall.

She was last spotted wearing blue jeans, a black Adidas original puffer jacket with white stripes down the sleeves and a grey Jack Wills hooded jumper.

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