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The remains of Greece’s ambassador to Brazil are believed to have been found in a burnt out car in Rio de Janeiro.

Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, went missing three days ago after leaving the home of friends of his Brazilian wife in a poor and violent suburb of the city.

A Rio state police official said the ambassador's wife reported him missing on Wednesday.

Brazilian television channel Globo showed images of the burnt-out white car in the Nova Iguacu neighbourhood where the ambassador went missing. The station reported that the licence plates on the car matched those of Amiridis' rental vehicle.

An official at the Greek Embassy in Brasilia would not confirm the ambassador was missing, saying only that he was on holiday in Rio and expected to return to Brasilia on January 9.

Rio police inspector Evaristo Pontes had earlier told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper that he did not believe the ambassador was kidnapped.

"We're following some leads, but not that one. If it had been (a kidnapping), those who took him would have made contact by now," he said.

Amiridis previously served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004.

More recently he was Greece's ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016.

Brazil's Foreign Ministry said it had no comment on the case, other than to say it was being fully pursued by police.

In Athens, Greece's Foreign Ministry had no comment.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

