Fifty-year-old British expat is missing off the coast of Australia after failing to return from fishing trip with pal
Divers find arm on seabed during search for Nigel Kitchen, who is originally from Bolton
A BRITISH man is one of two fishermen missing off the western coast of Australia.
Nigel Kitchen, 50, originally from Bolton, Gtr Manchester and 57-year-old pal Andrew Hines failed to return from a boating trip after setting out from Coral Bay, a village 1,200km north of Perth on Sunday.
Divers taking part in the search discovered a human arm on the seabed in the area where the two are thought to have been.
It has been sent for tests.
Kitchen, emigrated to Australia several years ago, but is believed to still have family members in Bolton.
His anxious friends and family have taken to social media to express their hope he will be found alive and well.
His daughter Jessica posted on Facebook: ";Alright dad, you know what I want for my birthday. Come home."
Mr Kitchen's brother Duncan Edwards said: "Come home brother."
A former school friend said: "He was my friend when I was young, when we 15 or 16.
"He emigrated years ago — it must have been 20 or 30 years.
"I've got him as a friend on Facebook. I just wish him Happy Birthday every year and 'like' his posts and he'd put pictures of his fishing trips on there.
"I'm worried and I'm just waiting for news."
Messages of support have been flooding social media from the UK and Australia as news filtered through of the disappearance.
Perth businesswoman Alison Gee wrote: "Hoping that Nigel and Andrew are both found safe and sound.
"Both are long time customers of ours and we have shared many a drink together.
"Both of them are experienced boaties so we have everything crossed."
Two helicopters, two fixed wing planes and 10 boats were involved in the first day's search of 500 square miles of water and it resumed yesterday when the arm was found on the ocean floor.
A Western Australian Police spokeswoman said: "It will undergo forensic examination and it may take several days for results."
Debris from a hull and personal possessions discovered on Monday washed up on the shore have been discounted as being from the missing men's boat.
The original police statement said: "A Marine Search and Rescue operation is currently under way off the coast of Coral Bay for two fisherman that failed to return last night.
"The men from Perth are aged in their 50s and departed Coral Bay yesterday morning in a 8.2-metre vessel.
"They usually return before sunset, however, the boat trailer and vehicle are still parked at the boat ramp at Monk Head."
Mr Hines, of Cooloogup, a suburb that neighbours Port Kennedy, is a father-of-two, who friends said on Facebook is a retired Petty Officer with the Naval Police Coxswains.
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