Police officers using a patrol boat were this afternoon searching the banks of the River Ouse in the hunt for missing woman Carli Barry.

Sergeant Mike Stubbs, of York Police, said they reluctantly had to consider all possibilities as Carli had been missing since last Thursday.

Police were using the underwater search unit to scour the riverbanks because the water was still too treacherous for divers.

Meanwhile, a friend of Carli was today blitzing York with Evening Press posters in an ever more desperate attempt to find her.

Carli, who suffers from ME and walks with a stick, went missing in the early hours of last Thursday - her 27th birthday. It was the first time she had left the house on her own in ten years and she had been very depressed before her disappearance.

John Clowe, 25, of Barmby Road, Pocklington, said: "I've known her for a long time and usually meet up with her and Dan about once a week. I'm just really worried about her."

The Evening Press has run off 50 copies of a specially-designed poster so that John can distribute them to shops and businesses in the centre of York.

Carli is 5ft 3in, fairly well-built with a rounded pale face. She has red-brown extremely long hair usually tied in a plait and she has two dreadlocks behind each ear.

She is wearing a long olive green fleece jacket with an orange lining and thin green canvas boots, a black hat and carrying a small brown rucksack.

* Meanwhile, police are appealing for help in tracing an elderly man who has gone missing from his home in York.

Tom Delaney, 92, was last seen on early Friday afternoon at his home in the Heslington Road area of the city.

Police officers, some with dogs, have searched around his home and the grounds of nearby York University, where Mr Delaney enjoyed walking.

He is described as six foot tall, with grey balding hair, he wears glasses and often wears a cap. He walks with a distinctive stoop and carries a walking stick with a bulbous end.

* And Ralph Tong, a depressed man from Edinburgh, is also still missing and may be in York.

He is described as 6ft and well built with short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a grey overcoat. Anyone with information should contact police in Edinburgh on 0131 662 5000.

Anyone with information about Tom Delaney or Carli Barry should call York Police on 01904 631321.

Updated: 14:38 Wednesday, February 14, 2001