COPS in Tenerife said they are “doing everything possible” to find a missing Brit teenager.
Jay Slater, 19, from Lancashire, was on the island for a music festival and vanished after making a desperate phone call to his pals saying he was in the “middle of nowhere”.
He had spent Sunday night with pals he had just met before disappearing on his way home in the morning.
The teenager’s last-known location was Teno Rural Park in the north-west of Tenerife – a popular hiking spot.
He was last heard from at 8am on Monday morning when he made a frantic call to a friend saying he was lost, needed water and had 1 per cent battery left on his phone.
A Civil Guard spokeswoman in Tenerife said the force was desperately trying to find Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, with the help of mountain rescue teams and police helicopters.
She said: “A specialist Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group called the Greim have been mobilised.
“A police helicopter is also out and focusing on the area around the village of Masca.
“Other emergency services including firefighters have also been mobilised.
“Everything possible is being done to try to find the missing man.”
A spokesman for a regional emergency coordination centre: “Yesterday a regional government helicopter was mobilised but today it’s a Civil Guard helicopter as well as the Greim mountain specialist team.
“The alert about this missing youngster was received at 9.04am yesterday and the search began soon after and went on into the night.”
The people Jay met were staying in an apartment “in the middle of nowhere”, his close friend Lucy told the Manchester Evening News.
Lucy called Jay on Monday morning after he spent the night with his friends and he told her he was walking back to their holiday home.
He told her he “didn’t know where he was” and he needed a drink of water before the call cut off.
He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there
Lucy
Tracking his phone, Lucy said the last location was in the middle of the mountains in Teno Rural Park.
Lucy told Manchester Evening News: “He’s gone on a night out, he’s gone to a friend’s house, someone that he has met on holiday.
“One of the people he has met has hired a car out of here, so he’s driven them back to his apartment and Jay has gone there not realising how far away it is.
“He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there.”
The Brit was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and shorts with a black bag on him.
He is believed to have gone straight from the NRG festival in Tenerife to the home of his new friends before he left them at around 8am on Monday.
His family and friends say they “have never been so worried” after his disappearance and have launched a desperate appeal to find him.
Lucy told the BBC she had spent “all day up this mountain” looking for him.
“A lovely lady hired a car and drove me up there,” she said, according to Canarian Weekly.
“We searched everywhere, checking every nook and cranny.”
Jay’s mum Debbie is also said to be flying to Tenerife to help with the frantic search.
Debbie posted a plea for help on her Facebook last night asking for anyone in Tenerife to share a missing poster of Jay.
The Canary Islands are expected to reach temperatures of up to 25C today.
The British Embassy have been been told about Jay’s disappearance.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”
