Everything we know about backpacker Amelia Bambridge's disappearance

Volunteers and police who set up a search party found the pink and black flowered rucksack as they scoured the Cambodian holiday isle of Koh Rong where she was staying.

But they have found no trace of the 21-year-old from Worthing, who has now been missing for five days.

Amelia is on a gap year and travelling alone for the first time. She was last seen by other travellers she had befriended at a beach party at 3am on Wednesday.

She was due to check out of her youth hostel at noon on Friday to leave the island later in the afternoon with a friend.

But ten hours later, at 10pm local time, her mother Linda was told by the hostel’s manager that her daughter had “been declared officially missing”.

The worried parent took an emergency flight to the island on Saturday to join the search party of concerned locals and police.

As she prepared to leave the family home in Worthing, Ms Bambridge told The Argus: “I have got numbers of people to contact in Cambodia.

“I’m going to Bangkok, getting another flight to the country, then transport from the capital to the coastline.

“From there I will get a ferry, hopefully arriving at 2pm tomorrow afternoon local time.

“This is very out of character, she is normally so organised.

“I don’t know what to think.

“The police have confirmed she is missing – apparently the embassy is closed until Monday.

“There doesn’t seem to be any urgency.”

Concerns have been raised that the 40-minute path back from the beach party where Amelia was last seen to her youth hostel, the Nest Beach Club, was poorly lit.

Cambodian Police and volunteers scoured the remote island, which is about 30 square miles, for Amelia on Saturday and Sunday.

They are searching the jungle, mountains, creeks, beaches and all the places Miss Bambridge had visited, enlisting help from their diving teams. Events and parties which had been organised for the holiday island have been called off as fellow backpackers assist police.

Posting online, traveller Laura Li, who is organising searches on the island, said on Saturday: “We covered a lot of ground with the searches today but unfortunately Amelia is still missing.

“Reports that a body has been found are false to my knowledge and we will be resuming the search again tomorrow morning in the same manner as today.

“There are still lots of places to look so we want to ask anyone that’s free to help again.

“It was hard work out there and anyone helping needs to be prepared for that.

“Hope to see you in the morning.”

An “urgent appeal to find Amelia”, organised by her older sister Sharon Schultes, has raised more than £8,000 from 431 people in two days.

Amelia’s younger sister Georgie, 19, said Amelia would message the family whenever she had wifi.

She said: “She is strong minded, really sensible and very organised.

“She spent the last year Googling solo female travelling, looking at pages and blogs and sorting out everything.

“I’m just in shock, she has never done anything like this before.

“I spoke to her Wednesday and she normally messages us every now and then, every time she got wifi.

“I told her to put loads of pictures online to see what she was up to.

“It’s horrendous but we need to be positive and she needs to be found.”

Sussex Police said they were supporting Amelia’s family and were in contact with agencies in the UK and in Cambodia.

Amelia, a former student at Bhasvic in Hove, left the UK last month after completing an apprenticeship.

Yesterday, Cambodian police released images of her backpack and belongings which were found on the beach.

There is also an image of her passport, which is still at the youth hostel.

The media in Cambodia has reported the island’s deputy police chief Nop Panha as saying that, previously, another visitor to the area “went out in the forest for four days” but returned safely.

The area’s provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun, who joined the search party yesterday, said he “carried the strength of the state” in the attempt to find the missing backpacker.

He said: “Today, I lead the Provincial Unity Command Team to search for a British woman Amelia Bambridge, who went missing on October 24 in Koh Rong.

“Today’s search force is divided into three sections: first, the diving force, the second search force is in the mountains, the perimeter of the island, and the dorm rooms.

“The third uses criminal skills to investigate.”

Ryan Harris, 18, who was part of the group travelling in the Asian country with Amelia raised the alarm on Friday.

Ryan moved on to another island with plans to link back up with Miss Bambridge.

He said: “She was one of the first people I met over here about a week ago.

“I met her in Phnom Penh and we got the boat to Koh Rong.

“We all spent a few days together and met up with a few other people in a big group.

“We went on to a neighbouring island but she stayed there with another girl I know who had travelled with us on the boat over.

“I then had to travel back to Koh Rong after leaving my passport at the hostel and when I got there two people told me she had gone missing.”

Amelia was last seen wearing a tropical print shirt.

She has a cow tattoo on her forearm and two cat tattoos on her legs.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are assisting the family of a British woman who has been reported missing in Cambodia and are in close contact with the Cambodian police”