The partner of missing 45-year-old Nicola Bulley has said he is “staying as strong as I can” and focusing on supporting “the girls”.

“I don’t know how I am coping. I don’t want to think about that. I am just focused on the girls,” Paul Ansell said.

He added that he kept playing “every scenario” in his head “around and around” following the disappearance of Ms Bulley.

“Every single scenario comes to a brick wall,” he said.

“It is as though she has vanished into thin air.”

Mr Ansell also thanked the local community for their “amazing” support.

Mother-of-two, Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog down a footpath by the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre on the morning of Friday 27 January.

Nicola Bulley’s friends hoping for ‘lightbulb moment’ as they retrace her route a week after she disappeared

Nicola Bulley search: ‘High-risk’ investigation will have ‘quickly escalated’, former senior detective says

Nicola Bulley search: What were missing dog walker’s movements before she disappeared?

On Thursday her heartbroken sister Louise Cunningham told Sky News “it feels like I’m just stuck in a nightmare”.

In the interview, her family made an emotional appeal to anyone who may have seen her or knows where she is to come forward and speak to police.

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