Amelia Bambridge missing: Family joins search in Cambodia for British gap-year student not seen since Wednesday

Bonnie Christian28 October 2019

The family of a British student missing after a beach party in Cambodia have joined the searches for her.

Amelia Bambridge, 21, from Worthing, West Sussex, was last seen by friends on the island of Koh Rong on Wednesday.

Staff at Police Beach, a private venue that holds regular events, found Ms Bambridge's purple rucksack containing her purse, phone and bank cards the following morning.

Her brother and father arrived on the island on Sunday and her mother is on her way to look for her.

Local volunteers and Cambodian police have spent the day scouring the shoreline and jungle using equipment from a local dive centre as well as a drone.

Ms Bambridge's sister, Georgie, told the BBC, searches would resume tomorrow after being halted overnight.

Amelia Bambridge
Lucie Blackman Trust/PA

"There was a search today, with the number of people up to 90, and they are using divers and drones,” she said.

She added that she and her two other sisters were remaining in the UK to raise money for extra searches and spread awareness.

"Right now our mindset is just to get Amelia back," she said.

"Our number one mission is Amelia. We need to find her. We don't know what's happened. We don't know what's gone on."

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We are assisting the family of a British woman who has been reported missing in Cambodia and are in close contact with the Cambodian police."

Ms Bambridge set off to Vietnam on September 27 to meet her Vietnemese father.

They both travelled to Cambodia before she checked into the hostel on her own on Koh Rong.

On the night Ms Bambridge disappeared, she had been with friends she had met at the hostel and they had gone to a party on Police Beach - named after its proximity to a disused police station.

Ms Bambridge’s mother, Linda, was later contacted by the manager of the Nest Beach Club hostel after she failed to check out of the hostel and her handbag, containing her purse, phone and bank cards, was found on a nearby beach while her passport remained at the hostel.

She had previously told The Argus newspaper: "This is very out of character, she is normally so organised.”

"There doesn't seem to be any urgency. Her friend is still there as they were due to leave the island today, but she hasn't left because Amelia is missing."

Fellow traveller Ryan Harris told how he initially raised the alarm.

He said: "We met in Phnom Penh, travelled down to Koh Rong together and then I visited a neighbouring island with plans to see Amelia again in a few days in Siem Reap.

"I saw her on Wednesday in the day and then left for the island that day."

When he returned the following day at around 11.30am, Mr Harris was told that Ms Bambridge had not returned from her night out, adding: "Someone mentioned it when I got off the boat at the pier and then again when I got to the hostel.

"My friend messaged me to let me know she still hadn't shown up and we just kind of went from there.

"No-one had made contact at that point as (her) parents hadn't even been informed yet."

He earlier told BBC South East Today: "It is definitely out of character for her to not show up because she always sticks with the group."

Fellow traveller Caro Harvey, who met Ms Bambridge in Phnom Penh before the pair met up again on the island, described the missing backpacker as "very friendly".

"I was alone in the hostel... so she came (to) sit with me and we start(ed) to talk. She was looking very happy to travel alone."

Ms Harvey said she had also been staying at the Nest Beach Club, but added: "My last time talking to her was before she leave for the party because I didn't go at this one.

"I went to bed before they leave for the party.

"I was at the Nest but the last time I saw her she looks happy like every time."

Ms Harvey said Ms Bambridge had travelled to the party with other revellers but she did not know who they were.

An employee at the Koh Rong Dive Centre, which is a seven-minute walk up the coast from Police Beach, said: "We are all so sad and worried and doing everything in our power to find her.

"We have provided a boat, diving gear and tanks. Military divers are involved."

Cambodian police posted a photo of officers searching parts of the island's jungle on Facebook while images of investigators setting up a drone also appeared online.

The Lucie Blackman Trust, which supports the families of missing people overseas, has put out an appeal on Facebook.

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