A former Coronation Street actress has said she “hopes to God” a missing British teenager is found safe and well after he went missing on the island of Tenerife.
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday while on the Spanish island, where he was holidaying with friends.
His friend, Lucy, said she received a call from him at about 8.15am on Monday when he told her he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% phone charge.
Lucy said he had told her that he planned to walk back to his accommodation following a night out after missing a bus – a journey expected to take about 11 hours on foot.
His phone then cut off, with his last location showing as the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous area popular with hikers.
Vicky Entwistle, best known for her role as Janice Battersby on ITVs Coronation Street, posted on social media on Tuesday, wishing for the teenager’s safe return.
She revealed she has a distant relation to Mr Slater, as her godmother is his grandmother.
“His mother has flown out… to join the police search. Hope to God they find him,” the actress wrote on the X social media platform, asking people to pray for him.
Teenager ‘very street wise’
Mr Slater’s stepfather, Andy Watson, told The Sun on Tuesday that the entire ordeal still “feels like a blur”.
He described the teenager as “very street wise” and “no mug”, but said he could have gone the wrong way and become more lost when trying to find his way back, especially if it was dark.
His friend Lucy told the Manchester Evening News that one of the people Mr Slater had met on the night out had driven him back to their apartment in a hire car and the teenager had not realised how far away it was.
“He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there,” she said.
“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.”
The teenager’s mother, Debbie, added that her son was likely “disorientated” and didn’t realise it was such a long walk back to his accomodation.
“I just think it was a question of him not knowing the island well enough,” she added.
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She flew to Tenerife on Tuesday morning to help with the search.
“I’m obviously beside myself with worry which is why I’ve flown out here with my eldest son to do anything we can to help,” she previously told the Daily Mail.
She added: “It sounds as if the police here are taking this very seriously and doing the best job they can”.
A Facebook group has also been set up to help search for the missing teenager and already has more than 142,000 members.
Mr Slater, who had earlier attended NRG music festival, was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers. He was also believed to be carrying a black bag.
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A Civil Guard spokeswoman in Tenerife said on Tuesday they were doing “everything possible” to find Mr Slater, including the deployment of a specialist mountain rescue team and a police helicopter “focusing on the area around the village of Masca”.
Other emergency services, including firefighters, are also involved in the search.
The Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”
