Specialist search dogs have been drafted in from the Spanish capital Madrid to help in the hunt for missing British teenager Jay Slater.
The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn in Lancashire, was last seen in Tenerife in the morning of Monday 17 June.
Mr Slater had travelled to the northwestern mountain village of Masca after attending the NRG musical festival on Sunday night.
The apprentice bricklayer phoned a friend he had been holidaying with at around 8:30am the following morning to say he was walking back to his accommodation in the southern town of Los Cristianos after missing a bus.
During the short phone call he said he would walk instead – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot and involve walking through mountainous terrain.
He also said he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% charge on his phone.
Police, mountain rescuers and Mr Slater’s family are trying to find the British teenager as the search for him is into its ninth day.
Read more:
Scottish hiker rescued by police searching for Slater
Online sleuths wade into hunt
Slater’s dad says police are keeping family in the dark
Jay Slater and his mother Debbie Duncan. Pic: Lucy Law
Tenerife police confirmed today that several dogs from Madrid are now helping with the search and rescue effort.
The force said: “The Civil Guard continues with the search device for the young British man who disappeared in the Masca neighbourhood, belonging to the municipality of Buenavista del Norte (Tenerife), in which different units of the Civil Guard participate.
“In addition, today several Canine Guides of the Civil Guard dispatched from Madrid with their canine agents specialised in the search for people on large areas of land, belonging to the Cynological Service of the Civil Guard.”
Slater was seen ‘walking fast’ before his disappearance
Mr Slater’s mother, father and brother have all flown to Tenerife to help with the search.
His father Warren Slater said on Monday that while some officers had been “brilliant”, he had been left frustrated at the lack of communication from others.
The family has also shared a blurry CCTV image of what they believe could be the missing teenager in a town nearby to Masca around 10 hours after he was first reported missing.
The last person to see Mr Slater was Masca resident Ofelia Medina Hernandez who spoke to the teenager at 8am on Monday 17 June.
Ms Hernandez said she told him a bus was due at 10am as he seemingly hoped to get back to his accommodation.
However, he set off walking – and she said she later drove past him as he was “walking fast”.
Last week, photographs emerged showing the Tenerife property where Mr Slater had reportedly been before he went missing.
Rumours and conspiracy theories about his disappearance have since circulated online, with social media users speculating on platforms including TikTok and Facebook.
Some online sleuths have even travelled out to Tenerife to try and find Mr Slater.
