The sister of a British photographer feared to have been killed by Hamas terrorists has paid tribute to her 'baby brother'.

Danny Darlington and his girlfriend Carolin Bohl were in Kibbutz Nir Oz when it was attacked by Hamas fighters in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Darlington’s whereabouts have not been accounted for since he went into hiding in a bunker in the kibbutz close to the border with Gaza.

Darlington, who lived in Berlin, had been travelling with his German partner and were happily posing for snaps on Instagram shortly before they vanished.

In a moving tribute posted on Facebook, accompanied by a picture of Danny, his sister Shelley Darlington wrote: “My heart is broken. My baby brother is gone.

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Danny Darlington posing for holiday snap with Carolin Bohl (Photo: Instagram)

“Thanking people for their messages of support, she continued: “Knowing how many people loved and cared for Danny and reading your memories of him will never bring him back, but it does offer a slither of comfort to the indescribable pain I am feeling.”

Shelley went on to reveal that Danny was supposed to have left for Tel Aviv the day before the attack.

She added: “My baby brother, Dan, was murdered by terrorists on Saturday morning on our kibbutz, Nir Oz, alongside his beautiful friend Carolin. 

“Only days before he was riding his bike, laughing, taking photographs of sunsets and enjoying life's simple pleasures in our beautiful kibbutz.

“He was meant to leave for Tel Aviv the night before but decided to stay one more day to explore the kibbutz with his friend-a decision that has irrevocably changed all our lives forever, and one that cost him his life.”

She concluded: “Our community has been destroyed.”

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Shelley Darlington (Photo: Instagram)

Darlington’s father David said the photographer’s half-sister had last spoken to him on the morning of his disappearance. He told the BBC: “The communications network is down and we haven’t spoken to him.”

Carolin's heartbroken sister Anja Pasquesi said on Sunday night the family had now received news of their deaths from a friend “on the ground” in Israel.

She said: “Today we learned that she and her friend Danny were killed in a terrorist attack yesterday. We are broken and are working to cope with this unimaginable tragedy.”

Her brother-in-law Sam Pasquesi added on Instagram: “While we haven’t got official notification from the governments of Israel, Germany or UK, we have reliable information from the ground in Israel that our beloved Caro and her dear friend Danny were killed in a terrorist Hamas raid.”

It comes after Foreign Office sources indicated that 10 Britons were now feared dead or missing.