The search for an 81-year-old man who went missing has been suspended.

The man, whose name has not been released, left his Amherst home Monday morning but did not return.

His wife reported him missing Monday afternoon.

Police say they began searching for the 81-year-old after receiving a complaint of an abandoned vehicle on the bridge on Highway 6 in Port Howe, almost 40 kilometres from his home.

They found his vehicle on the bridge with his keys and walking cane still in it.

"It was located by our members around 6 p.m. last evening," Const. Dal Hutchinson with Cumberland RCMP said Tuesday. "However, people in the area claim to have seen it here since about 8:00 yesterday morning."

He also said one local resident saw a splash in the water under the bridge where the car was located, but that police have no further evidence of that.

Members of the RCMP and ground search and rescue teams from nearby Pugwash and Springhill combed the shoreline Monday and all day Tuesday.

Local fishermen, including a member of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, searched the rough waters near the bridge.

Two helicopters and RCMP divers from Cape Breton and Halifax got involved in the search Tuesday afternoon. The dive team focused their efforts on the water beneath and around the bridge, with the belief the man have may fallen into the water.

"That is what we're trying to find out at this time…we don't have any indication that he has been found or observed anywhere else other than in this area," said Hutchinson. "All we have to go on right now is finding his vehicle here."

The case has been turned over to RCMP as a missing person's file

With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh