Now it's 'key' in the search for British teenager Jay Slater missing in Tenerife, says local journalist | World News

Today is a “key day” in the search for a British teenager missing on Tenerife since Monday morning, with search and rescue teams hoping for “good news”, a journalist on the island said.

Jay Slater, from Lancashire, who was on holiday with friends, was last seen on a night out in Tenerife Sunday evening, after going to the NRG music festival.

Tenerife-based journalist Clio O'Flynn said Thursday “is a key day, the day they [the rescuers] want to hear good news and say they found Jay.”

“If he has taken shelter, we hope he is waiting for help,” the journalist told Sky News.

His mother, Debbie Duncan, who traveled to the island and joined mountain rescuers and the local civil guard in the search for the 19-year-old, described his disappearance as an “absolute living nightmare”.

She told ITV News: “I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I just want my baby back.”

Mr Slater's friend Lucy Law told Sky News' UK Tonight on Wednesday she spoke to him on Monday around 8:15 a.m. local time.

Mr Slater, an apprentice bricklayer, is “not a stupid boy”, she said, but he told her his mobile phone battery had dropped to 1 per cent.

Ms O'Flynn said: “The issue will be 'does he have a phone signal? Will people be able to locate him? Can he hear their screams?'”

The authorities, she added, are “very, very keen to find this young man, for his sake and that of the island”.

The search was “very intense”, she added, with teams using all the resources at their disposal, including “mountain specialists, search dogs, drones and helicopters”, and which ” take into account his family's suggestions, so it's very coordinated.”

The area where it is believed to have disappeared is a “dry, arid part of the island” and, given its volcanic origins, has “gullies and gullies”, Ms O'Flynn said, warning that there are had “no lakes”. rivers or streams, it would therefore be quite difficult for it to access fresh water.

Ms Law said Mr Slater, of Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn, told her he had gotten lost and needed water and had “cut his leg on a cactus “.

When she told him to go back to where he left, he said he didn't know where that was, she said.

He was without food or water, she added, and was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. “It’s very hot during the day and very cold at night.”

Earlier, she told the Manchester Evening News that someone Mr Slater had met on his night out drove him back to their flat in a rental car without him realizing how far away he was.

“He ended up in the middle of nowhere. Jay obviously thought he could get home from there,” she told the newspaper.

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During the short phone call, he told her he had missed a bus while trying to get back to his holiday accommodation and so was trying to walk instead – a journey which would take 11 hours.

His phone then went dead, and his last live location was Teno Rural Park, a mountainous area popular with hikers.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”