Massive Search Underway for Hiker Missing in Bulgaria's Stara Planina

A search and rescue operation is to be renewed on Tuesday in the Stara Planina mountain for a 34-year-old man who went missing last week.

On Monday, the army joined the search, with 296 troops looking around the area.

Army vehicles and a drone have also been dispatched to take part in the operation.

Miroslav Kasovski, an IT programmer, was last in contact with friends and relatives on October 27.

He had gone alone on his bike, as he usually prefers to be in the mountains on his own, daily 24 Chasa quotes Kasovski's friends as saying.

The missing man did not take food when headig to Stara Planina. On Thursday, the day he was last contacted, he told a friend he was 10 km away from Botev peak.

However, severe weather conditions of the last few days may have thwarted his attempt to conquer the peak.

In 2014, three teenagers got lost in Stara Planina and it took rescuers six days to find them.