Jay Slater cops beg public for assist with ‘large’ search tomorrow after warning

Spanish police have urged volunteers to join the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater.

The 19-year-old from Lancashire was reported missing in Tenerife more than a week ago (June 17) after he called his friend Lucy, telling her he was lost in a rural area of the island with only 1% battery left on his phone.

His last known location was half a mile north of Masca village. Despite ongoing efforts by emergency workers, including the Civil Guard, mountain rescue team and fire crews, the challenging terrain of the Rural de Teno park is proving difficult to search.

READ MORE: Ex-Met cop claims ‘unlikely’ Jay Slater is still alive as search area ‘so large that only a fraction can be searched’

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However, despite calls from an ex-cop for “armchair detectives” to stay away, the Guardia Civil has now urged volunteers to join the search.

In a lengthy statement, they said: “The Guardia Civil prepares and coordinates a large search to find the young British man missing in the village of Masca. The collaboration of all those Volunteer Associations is requested: Civil Protection, Firefighters, etc., and even private volunteers who are experts in the abrupt search terrain.

“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.”

This comes just 24 hours after former Northumbria Police chief constable Sue Sim took to Sky News to hit out at the myriad of Facebook groups and social media posts in various places set up purely to either “help” find the 19-year-old or to make fun of it.

Sim told Niall Paterson: “Please do not spend time putting things onto social media. Please do not try and hamper this investigation in any way.

“If you have genuine intelligence or evidence as to where Jay might be phone your local police. They will be able to get in touch with the Guardia Civil, and they will pass any intelligence onto that organisation. The worst thing people can do, sitting at home in their armchairs, is to speculate about what might have happened.”

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