Search for Jay Slater refocuses location on ‘key’ day for missing teenager

The search has entered its third day

Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had travelled to Tenerife with his friend Lucy Law to attend a music festival.

He was last heard from at around 08:00 BST on Monday when Lucy received a call from him in which he said he was lost, needed a drink of water and had 1 per cent battery on his phone, the BBC reports.

His phone then cut off, and his last known location was shown as he mountainous Rural de Teno national park in the north west of the island.

Police on the island, the Guardia Civil, have told the BBC that their search had temporarily been moved to the Los Cristianos area on Wednesday due to a potential lead.

But the force said their efforts have now returned to the north-west, to the area of Rural de Teno, around the village of Masca.

This is the third day the search operation has been underway, with police, mountain rescue teams, firefighters, search dogs and drones all involved.

Slater had travelled to Tenerife with Law to attend the three-day NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.

The teen ended up leaving the area in the early hours of Monday morning with two men he had met on the island, and ended up at their house, a 40 minute drive away from his accommodation.

Law told the MEN that Slater hadn’t realised how far away from his own accommodation the group’s property was when he was driven there.

She said: “He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere.

“Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there. But then in the morning he’s set off walking, using his maps on his phone and ended up in the middle of mountains with nothing around.”

Slater phoned Law the next day to tell her he had missed a bus home and was going to try and walk home, a journey which would take around 10 hours.

He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers, and is believed to have been carrying a black bag.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, the Volunteer Firefighters of Santiago del Teide described how it had joined the search effort.

The group wrote: "We were activated to continue with the search for the young man moving four vehicles with 16 firefighters together with local police, firefighters from Guia de Isora, mountain civil guard, Guardia Civil unit of civil guard dogs, family and friends of the young man."