A “massive search” for British teenager Jay Slater will get under way in Tenerife today, almost two weeks after the apprentice bricklayer went missing.
The Civil Guard said they would step up their search for the 19-year-old after appealing for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers with experience in navigating difficult terrain to help them.
Police and volunteers will begin their search at 9am in the village of Masca, near to Mr Slater‘s last-known location, and attempt to retrace his last-known steps.
In a statement, police said: “The massive search will be carried out on Saturday, 29 June from 9am.
“Bearing in mind that this is an abrupt, rocky area, full of unevenness and with a multitude of ravines, paths and roads, the collaboration of all those associations of volunteers who can help in this raid that is intended to be carried out in a directed and coordinated manner is requested.”
Sky’s North of England correspondent Shingi Mararike in Tenerife said the search “is perhaps a final push from the Civil Guard to make some kind of headway”.
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Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared after trying to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus on Monday last week.
He was last pictured at Papayago, the nightclub hosting the end of the New Rave Generation festival, late on 16 June.
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Appeal for volunteers in Jay Slater search
Slater seen by cafe owner
After the event ended, he got in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca, where a local cafe owner told Sky News he tried to catch a bus back to Los Cristianos, where he was staying.
Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she saw him at 8am on 17 June, and added: “He asked twice what time the bus came.
“He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock. Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that.”
She said he was walking in the wrong direction.
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A missing persons sign for Jay Slater in San Tiago del Teide. Pic: Adele-Momoko Fraser
Last phone call
It comes after one of Mr Slater’s friends told ITV’s This Morning about his last video call with the 19-year-old.
Brad Hargreaves said he saw the missing teenager’s feet slide on rocks during a call at around 8.30am, saying that is how he knew Mr Slater was not on a road.
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He then said Mr Slater went down a “little drop” in one of his last video calls, and added: “He said, ‘look where I am’.
“He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was. I said, ‘put your location on’. He said: ’15-minute drive, 14-hour walk’.
“I don’t know if it’s accurate or not so I said to him: ‘It’s only a 15-minute drive, get a taxi’.”
Search teams coordinated by the Civil Guard have since mounted a huge manhunt using helicopters, drones and search dogs to scour mountainous areas of the island, but are yet to find the teenager.