Norwich man, 22, had been missing on mountain since Saturday when he contacted his girlfriend for help

Park rangers have found the body of Aiden Webb, a Briton who went missing after injuring himself on a solo trek up Vietnam’s highest mountain six days ago.

Webb, 22, an experienced climber from Norwich, was climbing Fansipan, which is more than 10,000ft (3,000 metres) high, when he fell on Saturday morning. He called his girlfriend, who was in a nearby town, to tell her he was lost before his phone battery died.

Vietnam’s state-run news agency said a rescue team found Webb’s body less than a mile from a cable car structure. The team estimated Webb had died three days ago.

The BBC’s Vietnamese service quoted the general manager of the Hoang Lien national park as saying: “It is very sad that we found the British tourist body today at 12:50 (06:50 BST). The position is quite near the location that his girlfriend gave us, in Sin Chai village.”

Fansipan mountain, Vietnam Fansipan mountain, Vietnam

The village is at the base of Fansipan, about 18 miles from Sapa town where Webb’s girlfriend, Bluebell Baughan, was staying. The search area covered a vast mountainous area but rescuers focused on the site from where Webb sent his last text to Baughan. More than 200 people, including mountain rescue teams, park rangers and dogs joined the search.

The backpacker’s father, Trever, and uncle, Michael Webb, had flown out to help look for him in the dense jungle and his family launched a public campaign to ask for help from travellers in the region.

“Aiden is lost, injured, cold & wet in the Vietnam Jungle. Please! Help us find him!” his family wrote on a Facebook page entitled “Help us find Aiden in Vietnam” on Wednesday. They said he had hurt his knee, torn open his arm and lost his flashlight after falling. The Facebook page was closed on Thursday afternoon local time.

The UK Foreign Office said its staff had been supporting Webb’s family and friends. “Vietnamese authorities have this morning confirmed they have found a body in the same area that British national Aiden Webb went missing. A formal identification of the body has not yet been conducted,” it said in a statement.

More than £6,000 had been raised on a crowdfunding page to pay for the search. An update on the site said earlier that five camera drones were being used to scan the area. The latest update on the site was a link to a news article about Webb’s body being found.

The drama graduate of Anglia Ruskin University had spent the last two months climbing in south-east Asia, including other sites in Vietnam and Thailand. In a Facebook post on 28 May, Webb said he was “free-soloing”, climbing alone without ropes or protective equipment.

“Never had so much fun and never had my mind so clear and empty. This is something I’ve felt I’ve needed to do in a long time,” he said, adding that he chose climbing routes below his skill level to stay safe.