People taking selfies at the site where Nicola Bulley went missing could have been seeking a sense of “personal validation” or might have been hoping to make money from online clicks, an expert has suggested.

In a statement, Ms Bulley’s family said she was “the centre of our world”, adding they would “never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us”.

“We, as a family, believe that the public focus has become distracted from finding Nikki, and more about speculation and rumours into her and Paul’s private life."

Since Nicola Bulley went missing, Dan Duffy has posted a number of videos on social media site TikTok, as well as three others on his YouTube channel.

“A shocking decision when the police’s treatment of women is rightly in the spotlight, said Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch.

It comes after senior officers said Ms Bulley was “vulnerable” and classed by police as a “high-risk” missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance.

Asked if “social media video-makers and wannabe detectives have been an annoyance or a hindrance in the inquiry”, she said: “Yes, it has significantly distracted the investigation.

Nearly 40 detectives have sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.

Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel Willow on January 27.

Her body has still not been found and detectives extended the search for her to the sea on February 3, saying finding her there “becomes more of a possibility”.

A 49-year-old man from Manchester and a 20-year-old woman from Oldham have been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences

As the search for her continues into its 18th day, police have been looking at areas from the river where she vanished to the sea

It comes as the search for Ms Bulley, 45, a mortgage adviser from Inskip, has entered the 17th day.

The mortgage adviser, 45, vanished on January 27 after dropping her two daughters – aged six and nine – at school, then taking her springer spaniel Willow for a walk along the river.

A woman described as a “key witness” by UK police searching for missing mother Nicola Bulley has come forward, as the force warned against “totally unacceptable” speculation and abuse on social media.

Ms Bulley’s friend, Emma White, also cast doubt on the police theory, telling Sky News it was based on “limited information”

Ms Bulley, 45, might have been trying to deal with an “issue” with her springer spaniel Willow, causing her to go to the edge of the River Wyre and into the water, the officer in charge of the missing person investigation said.