Police on the Spanish island of Tenerife have called off the search for a British tourist who went missing while on holiday last month.
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, vanished after leaving Rural de Teno Park on June 17.
Mr. Slater had attended the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas with two friends, but left them in the early hours of the morning and travelled by car with two British men he met at the festival to an Airbnb apartment in the village of Masca.
He posted an image on Snapchat at 7:30 a.m. showing him holding a cigarette.
It was tagged in Rural de Teno national park.
At around 8 a.m. he called a friend, Lucy Law, and said he was “lost in the mountains.”
Phone Battery Died
His phone battery died about 8:50 a.m. and Mr. Slater has not been seen since.The Guardia Civil, a Spanish police force, deployed helicopters, drones, and search dogs to search for Mr. Slater, who was an apprentice bricklayer.
Police and volunteers searched a steep, rocky area near the village of Masca last week but a Guardia Civil spokesman said on Sunday, “The search operation has now finished, although the case remains open.”
Some of Mr. Slater’s relatives and friends are reportedly staying in Tenerife to continue to looking for him.
On the appeal website Ms. Law wrote, “We are all so worried and we just want him home.”
Mr. Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, said the money raised online would be donated to mountain rescue teams and to cover her own accommodation and food costs.
It was Mr. Slater’s first holiday abroad without his parents.
Tens of thousands of British tourists visit Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, every year.
The volcanic island, 100 miles from the coast of Morocco, is popular because of its sandy beaches and nightlife.
Tenerife has three dormant volcanoes—Arafo, Fasnia, and Siete Fuentes—and the temperature in June averages 28 degrees, making sunstroke and dehydration a risk in isolated areas of the island.
