POLICE in Kent and Essex are still searching for a van driver who mysteriously disappeared on the QEII Bridge.

A search with helicopter and river launches began when the man vanished after his vehicle was abandoned on the bridge on Wednesday, November 30.

The incident was feared as a possible suicide but nobody was recovered and the driver has still not been found dead or alive.

Essex Police spokesman Helen Cook said: “We have CCTV showing the van but it does not show anyone jumping off the bridge.

Police need to hear from anyone who saw the vehicle and its driver. The alarm was first raised just after 2pm on November 30.

Bridge operators Le Crossing alerted coastguards after seeing the unlocked white Mercedes in the inside lane midway along the QEII Bridge.

Frank Aubin-Hart, the duty watch manager for London Coastguard, said: “A note had been found inside the vehicle. We were led to believe a person had either jumped or was about to jump from the bridge.”

An Essex Police helicopter was scrambled while the Gravesend Inshore Lifeboat searched the waters of the Thames.

The van was later found to be registered to a 52-year-old man in Hayes, Middlesex. Metropolitan Police officers have made contact with his family but have so far been unable to trace him.

That man’s name has not yet been released.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Essex Police on 01279 621804.