I was at Agia Marina when they found Dr Michael Mosley’s body

For five days I watched as Greece’s emergency services scoured the tiny island of Symi for any sign of Dr Michael Mosley who disappeared during a lunchtime walk while on holiday with his wife.

Teams of firefighters, police officers and rescue volunteers could be seen every morning combing the harsh mountainous terrain in temperatures of 37 degrees for any sign of the television presenter.

Each night they returned, exhausted and dejected.

In the end, it was a bar manager who discovered the father of four’s remains, only 50 yards away from an idyllic beach resort.

At 10.20am Agia Marina was packed with sunbathers and swimmers enjoying the 30C (86F) temperatures on Sunday morning.

Accompanied by the island’s mayor, The Telegraph took a boat to the resort after spotting a team of firefighters searching a nearby network of tunnels, known locally as the Abyss, the day before.

Yet 10 minutes after we docked, a panicked shout cut through the air: “They’ve found a body.”

We scrambled to follow Ilias Tsavaris, the 38-year-old manager of the resort, up towards the hills surrounding the bay.

Clutching his nose in his T-shirt, Tsavaris strode up the side of a chain link fence on the resort’s perimeter, shouting instructions to his colleagues.

A dark mass lying on a rocky patch of ground leading upwards from the shore came closer into view. There was no doubt it was Dr Mosley.

A purple umbrella, the key item which officers had used to trace Dr Mosley’s 5km route, towards the resort via CCTV footage, lay nearby.

Bar staff further down to the beach began frantically calling the police.

Twenty minutes later, a small boat ferrying forensic experts along with several police officers, arrived at the scene.

We watched as one police officer, in his haste to reach the remains, injured his leg after trying to vault over a stone wall and had to be stretchered away by colleagues.

Half a dozen uniformed firefighters quickly followed in tow, bringing an orange stretcher.

For 40 minutes, forensic experts examined the scene and searched through the contents of Dr Mosley’s black backpack bag which lay around 20ft away.

His body was then taken away on a stretcher and carried by four firefighters onto a boat to be taken to Rhodes for a post-mortem.

All the while, holidaymakers at the opposite end of the resort continued to sunbathe and swim in the sea, seemingly oblivious to what was unfolding. A group of young Italian men played water polo with an inflatable football.

For some of the resort staff it was business as usual as they continued to take food and drink orders from the beachgoers.

Shock and disbelief was etched across Mr Tsavaris’ face as he questioned why rescuers had not found the body earlier.

“They had searched that area every day with helicopters,” he said.

A crew of firefighters had been spotted by The Telegraph searching a rocky outcrop above a subterranean network of tunnels known locally as The Abyss, near to where Dr Mosley was found, only the day before.

One of the three firefighters had only one word to say when asked about the success of the 40 minute-long search the previous day.

“Nothing,” he replied, drenched in sweat.

Asked whether they had any further idea on where Dr Mosley could be, he replied despondently: “Everywhere.”

Mr Tsavaris, recounting the discovery of Dr Mosley, said: “You don’t see a dead body every day, it is not a war zone, it’s summer you are supposed to have fun and swimming.”

When asked how he was coping in the aftermath of the discovery, he simply replied “OK” with an accompanying thumbs up before walking away to take orders from the customers.