OVER eight weeks after he disappeared from Letterkenny gardai have this week made a fresh appeal for help in tracing a missing man.

John Coll (56) a single man, with an address at 44 Slieve Sneacht but originally from Carrigart, has not been seen since he disappeared on January 4.

"I appeared on RTE's Crime Call programme to appeal for information about John's disappearance. There was an excellent response. We had 17 calls of alleged sightings of John from places like Sligo, Castlebar, Donegal and other parts of the country and they are being followed up," Inspector Pat O'Donnell who is leading the search said this week.

"We notified the local garda stations of the calls and the people who made them and they will be shown pictures of John to help verify if it was him. We're hopeful that something positive will turn up to help us where John is," Inspector O'Donnell added.

Inspector O' Donnell, said Mr Coll may be confused or disorientated as he was on medication at the time of his disappearance.

"Since he disappeared John has not made any contact with his family or accessed his bank account. His family are very worried about his safety and welfare and we're liaising very closely with them as part of the investigation. There were reported sightings in Glasgow but we followed these up and they turned out to be false leads," Inspector O'Donnell said.

"Given his illness it is possible that John is wandering around and living rough. We have circulated his details to groups in places like Dublin who work in this area as well," he added.

John Coll is 66 years old and of 5ft 8' tall and of pale complexion.

"He may have grown a beard since his disappearance. Mr Coll was last seen on CCTV footage walking in the direction of the Hospital Roundabout. He was wearing a brown leather jacket, beige slacks and he was carrying a green canvass type bag,

"I'd appeal to anyone out there who might of seen or heard reports of him to contact the gardai immediately," he said.