A HIGH-PROFILE hunt for a missing York man is due to be boosted in the city after police searches elsewhere drew a blank.

The girlfriend of missing civil servant Peter Critchlow told the Evening Press that efforts to find the 25-year-old civil servant were to be redoubled today in York.

She called for people to help find Peter - as the search became more desperate and his details were sent to police across the UK.

"I am still hoping we can find him but the longer it goes on it gets harder, " said girlfriend Dawn Harrison.

"I want people here in York to know that the police search down at his home town in Northampton has led to nothing, and they are now concentrating back here in York.

Peter, who lives at Markham Grange in The Groves, vanished early on Saturday after drinking with friends in York. He was last sighted around the Heworth Green area. He has not gone missing before.

Police switched their attentions to Northampton after tracing a mobile phone signal to a site near his parents' farm. But inquiries in that area appear to have reached a dead end.

Peter's case has been reviewed by Detective Inspector Alan Carey, of York Police, who was not available for comment today.

Peter's photograph has been sent to police forces across the country. Dawn said the police search would today return to the city, possibly even covering the same ground as earlier hunts by searching the Foss and employing sniffer dogs and police helicopters.

She said checks with her boyfriend's bank, the passport office, his former university and even a pub where he used to work had led to nothing.

She said: "Sometimes I feel like we are clutching at straws really.

"His parents are really distraught, and I would just really ask for anyone who knows anything to come forward and help."

Updated: 10:42 Friday, November 21, 2003