THE search for a North Yorkshire kayaker who went missing in Norway will be delayed for at least a week because of rain, police have said.

Jason Raper, 19, a member of York Canoe Club, went missing in the River Raundalen in Voss in western Norway on June 23.

Ivor Hellene, of Hordaland Police, told national broadcasters the weather forecast looked too bad for the next seven days to search.

Mr Hellene said: "The river is very high and too powerful.

"We have to wait until the river is lower so we are waiting for the weather to improve."

He said that once the river level dropped, police would be able to trip a net across the river.

Mr Raper is understood to have travelled to the area to take part in an extreme sports festival in Voss, in Hordaland, but his trip on the river was not part of the organised events.

It has been reported that he was kayaking with three friends at the time he went missing.

So far up to 80 people had been involved in the search, as well as helicopters and boats.

A Foreign and Commonwealth spokesman said: "We can confirm that a British national has gone missing while kayaking in Norway and we are providing consular assistance to the family."

In May, Mr Raper and friends from the canoe club helped raise more than £3,350 in a three-day kayak event, in memory of Kate Stainsby from Swinton, near Malton, who died following a canoeing accident on New Year's Day.

Miss Stainsby, a senior physiotherapy lecturer at York St John University, drowned after she became trapped underwater on an expedition at Hobdale off the River Rawthey, near Sedbergh.