The family of a woman who disappeared in Dubai following an argument with her British ex-boyfriend now believe she is still alive and being held hostage.

Kerry Winter’s mobile telephone was answered yesterday for the first time since she went missing three weeks ago. A relative had a brief conversation with a man who spoke broken English.

It is the most significant development in the hunt for Ms Winter, a South African, since her former boyfriend, Mark Arnold, allegedly admitted beating her and dumping her in the desert on the day she disappeared.

Friends and family had received a number of texts from one of the two mobile phones belonging to the missing woman after she vanished, but had believed they were sent by someone else.

Mr Arnold, 42, from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, has been in police custody for more than two weeks and is reported to have insisted that Ms Winter was alive and well when he left her.

David Giles, Ms Winter’s nephew, told The National newspaper in Dubai yesterday: “We have been trying both her phones since she disappeared and they have been off, until this morning.

“We’re sending SMS messages to it constantly. I think it’s one of the people that is holding Kerry.”

The family is hoping detectives can trace the coordinates of the mobile phone and locate Ms Winter or the people who are holding her.

“In this day and age, mobile phones can be very easily traced, so this is a bit of a breakthrough,” said Mr Giles, who is in Dubai helping the search.

Ms Winter, 35, was last seen by neigbours being attacked with a baseball bat and being forced into her car outside her home in Al Barsha on August 20. She had previously told friends and family that she was being stalked by Mr Arnold following the end of their five-year relationship earlier this year.

Hundreds of South African ex-pats joined the search of the area on Friday where Mr Arnold is alleged to have claimed he left her, but could find no trace of the missing woman.

Mr Arnold, who has also previously lived in London, was an operations manager at Hamilton International, an interior design firm.

He flew to Britain with a new girlfriend two days after Ms Winter disappeared and returned to the Gulf state three days later, when he was arrested. Ms Winter had recently started work as an events coordinator at the International Conferences and Exhibitions.

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