SNIFFER dogs are being used in the hunt for a pensioner who vanished overnight from his family home.

John Nuttall, aged 74, from Bolton was last seen at midnight on Sunday July 1 at home at Higher Wilson Farm in High Rid Lane, Lostock.

His blue Ford Focus was found abandoned at the junction of Foxholes Road and George's Lane, Horwich, the following morning and a witness reported seeing him close to the car at 7am.
But two new sitings later that morning of a man fitting Mr Nuttall's description place him near the Blundell Arms in Chorley Old Road at 9am and on Moss Bank Way near its junction with Old Kiln Lane at 9.30am.

Police with two specialist sniffer dogs yesterday began combing an area including the Doffcocker Nature Reserve and fields south of Chorley Old Road.

Mr Nuttall's wife of 37 years, Linda, said her husband had been suffering from depression for about three years and had been staying at the Royal Bolton Hospital overnight during the week for the last six months.