A former regional press reporter is among three journalists who have gone missing in Libya.

Dave Clark was reporting on the conflict in the eastern city of Tobruk for Agence France-Presse, which he joined after working for Newcastle daily the Evening Chronicle in the late 1990s.

The 38-year-old was with AFP photographer Roberto Schmidt, 45, and Getty Images photographer Joe Raedle, who have not been heard from since Friday evening.

In an email sent to editors at the agency then, Dave said the group had planned to head 22 miles out of Tobruk to meet opponents of Colonel Gaddafi.

They also aimed to speak to refugees fleeing the battles between rebels and the loyalists.

Dave, who is based at AFP’s Paris office, had been in Libya since 8 March, while Roberto, who normally works out of the Nairobi bureau, arrived in the country on 28 February.

Since joining the agency, Dave has reported from battle zones including Iraq, Kosovo and Iraq.

After news emerged of his disappearance, former colleague Miles Starforth, who is now a sports writer for the Shields Gazette, wrote a post on Twitter which said: “Praying for my mate and former colleague Dave Clark, who is missing in Libya with another AFP journalist and a photographer.”

A biography about him on AFP’s website says he joined the agency at the end of the 20th Century ‘after learning everything a journalist ever needs to know as a news reporter and beer correspondent on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle’.

It adds: “Since then he has, at various times, been shot at or threatened by Serbian and Macedonian anti-terrorist forces, Albanian guerrillas, Nigerian pirates, Liberian child soldiers and Iraqi insurgents. Not that he bears a grudge.

“In September 2008 he lowered his more than ample frame into an office chair at AFP’s Paris bureau, from where he now reports on the diplomatic, economic and political doings of Europe’s most self-effacing nation. And on Carla Bruni’s outfits.”