Search stepped up for missing man

Mr King is from Keady in County Armagh

Two thousand pictures of a missing County Armagh man have been posted in the city of Melbourne, in the hope that he might be found.

The brothers of Stephen King, 27, from Keady, have flown out to Australia to join in the search.

Mr King, a tiler and bricklayer, was last seen with a group of friends in a bar in Melbourne on 19 July.

It is understood that he left his friends in the pub in Southbank to go to a casino.

But there is no evidence that he entered the casino.

He arrived in Australia three weeks ago for a year-long working holiday and had been staying with childhood friend Joe McQuade in the St Kilda area.

"We searched all over the area the first couple of days," said Mr McQuade.

"We got about 15,000 posters made up and boys from all over Ireland, from as far as Cork and Kerry and up as far as Derry, all over, just coming out to help us put posters up.

"I've done a radio interview and interviews with newspapers. There just seems to be no leads or no trace of him. It's very strange."

Australian police said the investigation into Stephen's disappearance was continuing.