Police in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai said they were actively seeking a British botanist who went missing in Sapa.

Jamie Taggart (Photo by dailymail)

Major General Hoang Ngoc Thanh, Director of Lao Cai Province, said that in early November police received news that a foreign visitor had gone missing in Sapa. On November 2, he left his hotel in Sapa without his passport and luggage. He was last seen going in the direction of Lai Chau Province and has not been seen since.

Nguyen Thi Mai Dung, Deputy Director of Lao Cai Province’s External Relations Department, said that local authorities received a letter from the British Embassy in Vietnam requesting for the search to continue.

Police are expanding their search based on information provided by his relatives and the British Embassy in Vietnam.

The BBC reported that the man's name is Jamie Taggart, is 41 years old and a retired firefighter. He runs Linn Botanic Gardens in Cove, on Rosneath Peninsula.

His father, Jim Taggart discovered his son was missing when he failed to appear on his scheduled flight home to Scotland on November 29.