DIVERS have returned to the River Foss in York today as the search for missing Ben Clarkson enters its fifth day.

Ben, 22, a former student at York St John University who works at a music store in the city, was last seen outside Fibbers nightclub in Stonebow at about 3.30am on Sunday.

North Yorkshire Police have studied CCTV from cameras across the city and carried out searches of his route from the club to his Heworth Green home, and the Yorkshire And The Humber Marine Unit was called from South Yorkshire to carry out underwater searches of the Foss for a second day.

Divers are back in the Foss today.

The Press yesterday printed posters to aid the campaign to help find Ben and they will be distributed to bars across the city by his friends.

The posters urge anyone with information to help police, family and friends in their search for Ben, asking: “Did you see him in the early hours of Sunday or have you seen him since then?”.

The newspaper stepped in to help after being contacted by a friend, Shannon Reynolds, 28, who said she was convinced someone would have seen him on his way home and could have vital information.

She estimated there would have been about 1,000 people near Fibbers and the nearby Duchess venue when he was in the area, and said that despite intensive police searches of the Foss, she believed there could be another explanation for his disappearance.

She had walked his route home from the city centre and the river was fenced off all the way, making it very difficult to fall in accidentally.

It was also announced yesterday that students from the University of York had put forward a plan to run a Street Angels-type initiative to look after students on nights out in the city.

Kallum Taylor, the university’s student union president, said he hoped the scheme would reduce the number of students in vulnerable situations, reduce drug and alcohol-related hospital admissions and to alleviate pressure on the emergency services.