THE devastated family of a man feared to have thrown himself from a Newport bridge have told how they still hope he may be alive.

Shocked motorists saw a man plunge from Newport Town Bridge last Thursday. Despite a huge river and air search, rescue services failed to find any trace of the man. Now the family of Turkish national Cemal Kilic, 24, say they believe he may be the person seen making the sign of the cross before jumping into the icy river at 6pm.

Mr Kilic (pictured) moved to Newport approximately a week ago from the Isle of Man to work in Yummies Kebab Burger on Upper Dock Street, Newport.

Workers at the kebab shop have told his family he talked about killing himself, before going missing, on only his fifth day in the job.

Mr Kilic is officially listed as a missing person by police. Last night his brother-in-law Seyit Ozif, of London, told the Argus: "He was working there in the kebab shop for four days and on the fifth day he told the business he wanted to take a day off because he wasn't feeling good.

"He said he was going to go home but he hadn't got the key. The staff realised he wasn't at the house, then they heard the helicopters going around and thought something must have happened."

Mr Ozif added: "He's been living in Britain for ten years and he's a citizen. He used to live with his parents in London, but before that it was the Isle of Man for two years. "He is full of love, he's not the type of person who is going to kill himself. We think it might be something pushed him.

"He was watching a film that had a lot of violence involved and that might have affected him."

Abdullah Kilic, 30, Mr Kilic's older brother, said: "He was saying 'I'm going to kill myself' to the people in the shop, but he hasn't got any problems and he never said anything about harming himself before.

"Even the police aren't 100 per cent if it was him or not. We don't know. We can't say he's definitely dead, we can't be sure.

"He was always laughing at everything, he was a very happy boy." And he made an appeal to his brother: "Please Cemal - come home or telephone home or the police."