Liam Colgan: Brother of man who vanished on Hamburg stag do pleads for him to get in touch as police fear for his safety
'Please, please come home. Everyone misses you'
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Your support makes all the difference.The brother of a British man who went missing on a stag-do in Hamburg five days ago has pleaded for him to “find a way” to make contact with him as fears grow for his safety.
"Please, please come home," Eammon Colgan said, before telling his brother Liam Colgan: "Everyone misses you. You're very much loved. I don't know what happened to you, just please get in touch, find a way.”
The 29-year-old from Inverness, vanished in the early hours of Saturday and Eamon is leading the search for him on the ground in the German city.
Eamon, 33, was due to get married in just three weeks and Liam had made the arrangement for the celebration in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg ahead of the wedding.
The pair had enjoyed a pub crawl in the popular nightlife district with friends and the last place they had been in was the Hamborger Viermaster pub.
Eammon later left the bar with the rest of the group and did not see Liam. However, he did not start to panic until he realised the next morning that his brother had not returned to the hotel room they were sharing.
He contacted police for help and they trawled canals and waterways in the Buxtehude area of Hamburg in a hunt for clues over the missing 29-year-old, the family said.
A spokesperson for the police said officers came to the conclusion that the man was “highly” intoxicated when he went missing in the early hours of the morning.
They hope to find him alive but the spokesperson added that there was “a threat to his life and wellbeing" given the cold temperatures at the time he went missing.
Eammon returned to Hamburg yesterday to lead his own search on the ground for Liam including posting up “Missing” notices across the city with his brother’s photo in an appeal to the public.
Eammon told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat that he did not see Liam when he and the group of friends left the Hamborger Viermaster pub at about 1.30am last Sunday morning.
"We thought Liam had left just a couple of minutes before us,” he said. "When he wasn't waiting for us outside, there was no reason to panic. He'd organised the whole trip so he'd researched the city and knew better than any of us how to get home."
When Eamonn woke the next morning, his brother was not there.
He added: "That's when panic set in. I was sharing a room with him. We looked in all the other rooms but there was no sign of him."
Police are continuing their search for Liam which has included making contact with hospitals and taxi companies.
Search dogs have also been used and Liam's picture circulated online and to media outlets.
"We came to the conclusion that, even though this is a 29-year-old male, he was highly alcoholised in a city he doesn't know, possibly without orientation," a police spokesperson told Newsbeat.
"So we have to presume, especially with the temperatures outside, that this is in fact a threat to his life and wellbeing."
A Facebook group has been set up called Help Find Liam Colgan, and a video plea was made by Dundee United captain Willo Flood.
Eammon said until Liam is found his marriage will not be a priority.
"The wedding is not even a thought to me or my fiance,” he said. "It won't be going ahead without Liam."
Additional reporting by Press Association
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