The dog walker and 1,000 taxi drivers are at the center of Jack O’Sullivan’s investigation.

A dog walker and 1,000 taxi drivers are the latest targets of police searching for missing student Jack O’Sullivan. Police have released fresh CCTV footage of a person walking their dog across Merchants Bridge – between Cumberland Basin and the Floating Harbor – around the time the 23-year-old student was seen walking around the area.

And police said they are focusing on finding any taxi drivers who were in the area at the time to see if they can shed any light on the mystery of what happened to the student.

Read more: Search continues in Bristol for missing Jack O’Sullivan

Read more: Police launch appeal to find dog walker in search of missing man

Jack went missing in the early hours of Saturday, March 2 after leaving a house party in Hotwells. He tried in vain to find a taxi back to his home in North Somerset and various CCTV cameras picked him up walking around the Cumberland Basin area at around 3.30am. This weekend, a large group of members of the public joined an unofficial search of the area for Jack, but the search turned up nothing new in the search for the missing student.

Today, police issued a new appeal and gave an extensive update on their detailed search – both for the technology surrounding his mobile phone and for CCTV in the area which captured his movements around Cumberland Basin that day night.

Police have confirmed they believe he was still using his phone for around the next hour after the last confirmed CCTV sighting, but subsequent pings to and from his phone until around 6am were automated.

Officers have launched a new appeal for a member of the public who was walking her dog in the area – she was caught on CCTV crossing Merchants Bridge just after 4.30am – and police say they would like to identify and speak to them as a potential witness.

“We are issuing new CCTV footage showing a member of the public walking a dog in the area of ​​the Brunel Swing Bridge and Cumberland Basin at around 4.30am on Saturday 2nd March,” a spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police confirmed . .

“This person is a potential witness, so we would like them to contact us. They are described as wearing a green padded jacket with a fur-lined hood and walking a black dog with a red collar,” they added.

Much of the police investigation into Jack’s disappearance is now focused on trying to find every driver who was in the area that night. It was the first Friday night in March into the early hours of Saturday morning and a cold night as snow fell around Bristol.

More than 1,000 taxi drivers have been contacted to see if they were in the area that night and if they have any dash cam footage, while officers are proactively trying to find all other drivers who called cameras on the main road at that time.

“We hope this renewed focus on motorists or motorists using the road system around Hotwells and the Cumberland Basin on the morning of Saturday 2nd March will produce more potential images that can help us provide answers to Jack’s family about what happened to him happened,” said Det. Inspector Jason Chidgey, of Avon and Somerset Police.

“We know there was a significant number of vehicles in the area around this time and we have previously appealed for anyone with dash cam footage to come forward – with a particular focus on the area of ​​Brunel Way, Brunel Lock Road, Junction Swing Bridge, Plimsoll Swing Bridge or Portway anytime between 2:45 and 4:00 on Saturday 2nd March. We are also still appealing for any cell phone or doorbell footage.

“Our thoughts are very much with Jack’s family, who are going through an unimaginable ordeal, and we are committed to supporting them in any way we can.

“To date we have reviewed and reviewed more than 100 hours of CCTV footage as well as carrying out extensive ground and river searches involving the dog and mounted unit, specialist diver teams using sonar technology, the Air National Police. Service (NPAS) and an expert team,” he said.

“We have sought and continue to seek independent advice from a range of experts to try to identify any lines of inquiry we still need to progress,” he added.