Fresh hunt for missing Zis Souflas

A team of Sherpas will launch a fresh search for a Brit nearly two years after he vanished in Nepal.

Zisimos Souflas, a 27-year-old backpacker, was trekking alone in the foothills of the Himalayas when he was last seen alive. He had flown into the country for a friend’s wedding.

His disappearance follows a spate of attacks on foreigners including one in which a young woman was found decapitated sparking fears he may have come to harm.

The St Andrew’s University graduate, from Sheffield and known by friends as Zis, disappeared from a hotel near to where trekkers start their ascent to Mount Everest base camp.

Next month, Chakra Kaki, who has been leading the search for Zis, will return to the region in a bid to find him.

He said: “It is a high-level case. Interpol plus British and Nepalese police have been involved. The Nepalese army have also helped with the search.

“I am going with another group at the end of March and will be talking to local people, mountaineers and police. We will try to get some information to find out what happened to Zis.”

The Yorkshireman checked into the Hotel Tibett in Namache Bazaar on April 24 2012. He had attended a wedding in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu but had decided to stay in the region to carry out volunteer work.

His family reported him missing when he didn’t come home on a return flight to Manchester Airport on May 15.

His mother and brother have joined Sherpas in the search. The Sherpas have twice travelled up the three main routes from Namche Bazaar. They took a photo, asking if anybody had seen him and put up missing person posters along the routes.

His friends and relatives have contacted the British Embassy in Kathmandu and the Foreign Office. They also set up a Facebook group Searching for Zisimos but his disappearance remains a mystery.

Despite the raft of foreign attacks, cops believe Zis may have fallen to his death.

Chakra said: “We don’t know whether he was trekking alone and fell down somewhere or something wrong happened inside the hotel.”

Zis is one of about a dozen missing foreigners in the area. His family would not comment.