The Spanish government has acknowledged that the lack of a breakthrough in the case of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick, last seen over a week ago, is a "growing concern".
The interior ministry's top official on the Costa del Sol, Hilario López, gave assurances yesterday that the search for the 15-year-old Irish girl, who failed to return home from a friend's house late on January 1st, is an "absolute priority" for the Civil Guard.
However, he admitted that "with each passing day the worrying increases".
He refused to be drawn on possible similarities between the disappearance of Dublin-born Amy and the high-profile cases of two local teenagers, Rocío Wanninkhof and Sonia Carabantes, who were abducted and murdered in 1999 and 2003 respectively.
He said such tragedies were not limited to the Costa del Sol, which he insisted was "not a dangerous place".
The official was speaking ahead of today's extensive search of the area where Amy was last seen.
At least 200 Civil Guard officers and police have been assigned to this latest search, over six times the manpower used in the initial searches during the days immediately after Amy's disappearance.
Sniffer dogs from the Civil Guard's mountain rescue unit and a police helicopter have also been called up on this occasion to help comb the hills around Mijas.
Although requests had initially been made for volunteers to help with the search, particularly from the ex-pat community in the area, the mayor of Mijas, Antonio Sánchez, announced yesterday that this had now changed.
He said that following advice from the officers leading the investigation "the search will be conducted by qualified personnel only due to the need to ensure any clues or evidence that might help clarify what happened to Amy are preserved properly".