THE anguished girlfriend of a missing York man has made a plea to the public to "keep an eye out for clues" as police step up their search for him this weekend.

Peter Critchlow, 25, a civil servant from Markham Street, The Groves, has been missing since early last Saturday.

He was last seen near the phone box at Heworth Green, after spending Friday evening in the Old White Swan, Goodramgate, and the Willow, a Chinese restaurant in Coney Street.

His girlfriend, Dawn Harrison, 24, told the Evening Press: "If everybody could just keep a look out in the area for any clues.

"It's getting harder the longer it's going on.

"My hopes are of him being all right are getting less and less - as time goes on there's less we can do.

"If the general public go to those places on a Friday night - then they might remember seeing something last Friday."

Police are concentrating their search on Peter's likely route home, which would have taken him near the River Foss.

Inspector Richard Crinyion, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "There are no medical, family or other obvious reasons why a healthy, happy 25-year-old should go missing.

"That is why this weekend we are concentrating heavily on searching along and around Mr Critchlow's route home, in case he has had some kind of accident.

"Naturally, we are hoping for the best and I am appealing to Mr Critchlow, if he is out there somewhere, to get in touch with police or his family as soon as possible."

Peter is six foot tall and thin, with short, dark brown hair and a scar on his chin.

He was wearing a white shirt with thin checks, dark jeans and a dark blue jacket and beige trainers before he disappeared.

Dawn, who has been Peter's girlfriend for two years, said she had gone through Peter's address book to contact his friends and had gone to search the area where he was last seen herself.

In the hours leading to his disappearance she received three text messages, which may not have been meant for her.

One said: "Where are you?" Another was blank and a third, at 4pm, after which Peter's phone cut off, said: "In Willow. Come alone".

She said: "It's still a mystery - we don't even know whether he headed into town or not."

Updated: 08:40 Saturday, November 22, 2003