Civil Guard holds major press conference as search continues for missing teenager

“Because at the stage we're at, we have to start ruling out areas and we have to make sure that the areas that we're looking at – even though you may have done a lot of work in the last few days – are looked at very thoroughly, and then can be ruled out.”

The teenager went to an Airbnb in Masca with people he met at the NRG music festival on Sunday June 16.

The apprentice bricklayer spoke to his friend Lucy Law at 8am local time last Monday to tell her he had missed his bus, his phone had only one per cent battery and he would walk home.

Despite meticulous police searches in the area, the teenager has still not been found.

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In the police's latest update on the search, Martin said: “It will obviously be based on the evidence we have.

“And the evidence we have is this: his last location, the conversations he had on that last day. [before he disappeared]and we will concentrate the searches around this area.”

When asked if the Civil Guard was keeping an open mind about what happened, Martin replied: “Yes, for the moment, yes. Even if we don't know yet, we are not going to emit various theories. [of enquiry] are under development.

“We searched the Masca area, the Barranco de San Lopez area and the Barranco Retamar, Barranco de las Aneas, Barranco de Carrizales, we searched the whole area. We know somehow that he was here because the coverage of his phone, there is no denying that he was at that point.

“And that’s where we have difficulty, because once you turn your phone off, it can’t be traced. So while he was walking – and we don't know how long he was able to walk – with his phone off, no antenna is going to pick him up.