The firefighter who went missing before Christmas Day has simply "vanished", his best friend has told Sky News.
Father-of-four Anthony Knott, from Lincoln Green, Orpington, Kent, has not been seen since he disappeared during a Christmas pub crawl with his workmates on Friday 20 December.
Friend Steve Shepherd said: "It's just out of character. He was happy [in his] home life, friends, family. I spoke to him on the Thursday, we were going for a drink on the Saturday. We had future plans.
"It's just unusual. He's vanished and we don't know where."
Mr Shepherd said Mr Knott had plans with his fiancee to be home by 2am, as well as having made plans with him for Saturday afternoon to "go for a few drinks".
Advertisement
He said: "Everything was normal. Nothing out of the blue.
"The only suggestion was that he might have gone outside to get some cigarettes and gone outside because he looked a bit anxious."
More from Kent
His comments come the day after Sussex Police released the last known image of Mr Knott, 33, walking alone on the night.
Mr Knott was seen at The Lamb pub in Lewes, East Sussex, where he had been with 11 of his London Fire Brigade (LFB) colleagues. For unknown reasons, he left the premises alone at about 7.16pm.
The last sighting of Mr Knott, which has been confirmed by his family, places him walking up Market Street and back towards the pub at 7.41pm.
Police say this is 20 mins after his phone was switched off, according to the time captured on the CCTV image.
There is nothing to suggest Mr Knott left the Lewes area and police are focusing their search efforts in the town.
There are "increasing concerns for his welfare and fears that he may have come to some harm", the force said.
His fiancee, Lucy Otto, has described the disappearance as "a complete mystery".
"I don't understand how someone can just walk out a pub and disappear," she told Sky News in an interview on Christmas Eve.
"There's no eyewitness statements, there's not much CCTV, there's nothing really to go on.
"And to be gone for this long, I just don't get it, I just do not understand it."
There has been no activity on Mr Knott's phone since 7.20pm on Friday and his bank card has not been used, Ms Otto said.
She has no idea where Mr Knott has gone and says "nothing has come up so far".
"I know the weather was really bad that day and there was bad flooding, I don't know if he's tried to come home and come across some water and hurt himself," Ms Otto added.
"But there's been search and rescue teams looking for him."
In a direct message to her fiance, she added: "If he is watching and you're worried and yRead More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
sky news
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
