A new search is under way on Tenerife for missing British teenager Jay Slater following calls from Spanish police for volunteer help.
On Friday the Guardia Civil asked voluntary organisations and members of the public with expertise in difficult conditions to come to northern Tenerife.
Dozens of experienced local firefighters, police and mountain rangers are leading the search, which is focusing on the ravines and trails around the village of Masca in the Rural de Teno national park and started from a local restaurant around 10:00 BST on Saturday morning.
Authorities had hoped the operation would be a “massive search” but less than 12 members of the public had arrived at the meeting point before it began.
Mr Slater, 19, has not been heard from since the morning of 17 June, after he told a friend he was lost in the mountains and had 1% battery on his phone.
Police confirmed Saturday’s search would be in an area previously explored but it would be more extensive and detailed, to make use of the extra people now involved.
Among the volunteers was Paul Arnott, a British climber and TikTok personality who has been searching on the island for the past week.
Another volunteer, Tenerife local Livia Karczeysky, said she was taking part because she too had a 19-year-old son and would want people to do the same.
“I think if that something happened to him I would appreciate a lot if other people would help to find him,” she said.
She added that the terrain is “not easy, you have to be prepared”.
Local Livia Karczeysky warned you need “good shoes” to deal with the stony ground of the area.
Since the teenager disappeared 12 days ago the Spanish authorities have deployed helicopter crews, specially trained search dogs and drones, but no trace of him has been found.
Mr Slater had been attending the NRG music festival on 16 June, and his friends said they were out in the tourist hotspot of Playa de las Americas when he was seen getting into a car with two British men he met earlier in the night.
The next morning he was tagged in a photo posted on Snapchat at 07:30 BST at an Airbnb in Masca, which was reportedly being rented by the two men.
Investigators have spoken to the pair and they are “not in any way relevant to the case”, the media were told in a press conference on Saturday.
Best friend Brad Hargreaves told ITV he received a video call from Mr Slater a short time later.
He said during that call Mr Slater appeared to slide off a designated path, with the video showing his feet on rough ground.
However, Mr Slater then said he had to go as he was receiving another call.
Mr Hargreaves said: “I don’t know how or what has gone on there but he’s gone off and rang me halfway to their house saying I’m staying here and I’ll be back the next day.
“He’s rang me walking down the mountain and he just says he’s walking home.
“At the time I didn’t think anything of it I just thought he was going to get a bus home or a taxi home because that’s what he says he is going to do.
“Next thing you know his phone dies and it’s 10 days on now and nothing since.”
Shortly after 08:30 BST he called another friend on the holiday with him, Lucy Law, and said he did not know where he was, needed water and had 1% battery before the call cut off.
Mr Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan previously told the BBC her son was on his first holiday abroad without parents.
“He’s just an all-round nice, bubbly guy with hundreds of friends who love being in his company,” she said.
“He’s gorgeous, he’s beautiful. He’s my baby.”
Mr Hargreaves’ mother Rachel Hargreaves said she and her son were staying in Tenerife with Ms Duncan for “as long as it takes”.
She said: “You can’t put into words how you feel. I’m just here trying to support and be strong for her.
“The things she can’t do I am trying to do for her, mother-to-mother.”
Source: BBC
