Security teams on Friday carried out search operations in the forest area surrounding the Kaiga Nuclear Power plant to locate scientist N Mahalingam, who mysteriously disappeared on June 8.

Police, Forest Officials and CISF personnel continued the search for the missing scientist but no clues have been found about his whereabouts so far, police officials said.

The search team has combed about 20 km in the forest area along the Western Ghats to find out whether Mahalingam, working in the Simulator Training Division of the nuclear power plant, was attacked by any wild animal. He went missing on June 8 after he went for a morning walk.

The employees' township is located about 16 km from the power plant and the transit area has no security.

According to officials, this is the second time Mahalingam has gone missing. He remained traceless for a few days while working in Kalpakkam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu but had returned later.