Search intensifies for missing backpacker Theo Hayez

Police are ramping up their search for missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez who disappeared without a trace 20 days ago.

An intensified search will resume for a missing Belgian backpacker with abseilers and search dogs set to join in, 20 days after the teenager vanished in Byron Bay.

Theo Hayez, 18, was last seen leaving the holiday town's Cheeky Monkey's bar about 11pm on May 31.

Police, State Emergency Service volunteers and members of the public have been searching for Theo for 10 days, but there's been no sign of him so far.

Searchers on Thursday will be joined by local abseiling team Brunswick Valley Volunteer Rescue Association, sniffer dogs, divers and drones as efforts to find Theo continue.

The abseiling team will focus their efforts on Byron Bay's cliff tops.

Search teams have been handing out photos of Theo's phone - a purple Oppo device - a NSW spokesman told AAP.

The last 'ping' from Theo's phone was recorded on June 1 in the area around the Cape Byron Lighthouse.

Theo's distraught father Laurent made an emotional plea for help on Monday, begging encrypted chat service WhatsApp to grant police access to his son's final known conversations.

The company has provided what information they can but are unable to access the content of the messages, AAP understands.
Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez, who vanished in Byron Bay in May.
The father of missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez has appealed for anyone to come forward with information. Source: AAP
Belgian police are also working in Europe to speak with people Theo may have contacted in his final known hours.

Alongside official search efforts, a group of concerned members of the community are also pitching in to help find Theo.

Searcher Bron Harrison says the group of around 50 people on Wednesday covered an area north of Byron Bay towards Tyagarah.

"It's people in the community who are worried and want to help somehow," she told AAP.

"The community is baffled ... just to disappear off the face of the Earth is incomprehensible."


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