THE search is continuing for a Wivenhoe grandmother who went missing in India and has not been heard of for more than six weeks.Mother-of-five Angela Brown disappeared after arriving by train in Delhi where she was due to meet a friend.

THE search is continuing for a Wivenhoe grandmother who went missing in India and has not been heard of for more than six weeks.

Mother-of-five Angela Brown disappeared after arriving by train in Delhi where she was due to meet a friend.

Two of her five sons, Greg and Robert Brisk, spent a week in India working with police and consular officials in a bid to track down Mrs Brown, 65.

They searched hospitals and traced passengers who travelled in the same train carriage as her during her journey to Delhi, but the enquiries drew a blank and the pair have now returned to the UK.

Greg Brisk will return to India on Saturday to liase with police and continue overseeing the hunt for his mother.

Mr Brisk, 41, of Lexden, Colchester, said his mother was born in India and had always wanted to return. She fulfilled her wish several years ago and since then has returned for a number of holidays, each lasting for a few months at a time.

Mrs Brown flew to India on October 4 and initially stayed in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, with a good friend who she met during her first tour of the country.

She was going to see another friend in Delhi and boarded the train for the 17-hour journey on November 27.

Mr Brisk said: "She rang her friend to say she was coming but she could not get through. We now know he had had his mobile phone stolen but she didn't know that.

"In India, telephones sometimes work and sometimes they don't.

"She was setting off and assuming by the time she arrived her friend in Bombay would have got in touch with him and he would be there to meet her. Of course, the message never got through and he wasn't there to meet her.

"The question is, what happened next? Frankly we can only speculate."

Mr Brisk and his brother traced two fellow passengers who were on the same train as Mrs Brown who confirmed that she arrived in Delhi.

He said: "From there, the trail goes completely cold. The police have been able to check phone records, even with the friend's phone that was stolen, and she did not try and call him.

"That would be the first thing she would have tried to do when she arrived and he was not on the platform but she hasn't done it.

"The second thing would be to ring her friend back in Bombay to see if he had got in contact but she did not do that.

"The other thing that I would expect is that she would go to the hotel ten minutes from the station where she always stays.

"I stayed there all this week, just to be in the area she would normally be in. They know her very well but they have not seen or heard from her."

Officials in India have also twice hand-checked 6,000 registration forms which were submitted by foreigners staying in hotels in Delhi on the night of November 28 - the night Mrs Brown arrived there - but have found no evidence that she booked into a different hotel.

Police spoke to touts who target foreigners at Delhi station offering them tours or hotels but drew a blank.

Posters with Mrs Brown's photograph have been put up around the station appealing for information.

Mr Brisk said his mother, who lives in Brook Street, Wivenhoe, with his father Maurice, always kept in touch while she was abroad and she had been due back in Bombay for a Christmas celebration.

He said that he did not believe she would chose to disappear as she had complete freedom to travel where she wanted, adding she was a "devoted" grandmother and it was inconceivable that she would not been in touch over Christmas.

Mr Brisk said: "Her friend in Bombay said she was absolutely fine, completely relaxed and happy.

"Unfortunately, that together with everything else leads us to conclude some sort of external involvement perhaps somebody persuading her to go off somewhere, which is not impossible given her friendly character, and then something has gone wrong intentionally or otherwise.

"That is unfortunately the most likely explanation.

"We were hoping there would be some simple explanation but it has got to the point where that's clearly not the case and everybody is finding it very difficult."

Anyone who can help the family to find Mrs Brown can contact them through their police family liaison officer, Pc Tracey Allen of Colchester police, on 01206 762212.