Jay Slater: Mum of Brit teen missing in Tenerife 'regrets' encouraging son to go on trip as search continues

Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, travelled to the Spanish island for a musical festival with friend Lucy and another friend. He reportedly went to stay with people he had met on the holiday after a night out.

On the morning of June 17, he called Lucy to say he was trying to walk back after not being able to catch a bus. He told her his phone battery was on 1 per cent, that he needed a drink of water and “didn't know where he was”. His phone then died with his last location showing as being in “the middle of mountains with nothing around”, Lucy said. The location is in the Rural de Teno Park - or the National Park of Teno - which is popular with hikers.

His mother Debbie Duncan has flown out to the island to help in the search. Speaking in an interview with ITV, Ms Duncan said Jay was looking forward to going on the trip - his first abroad without his parents - and that he had been saving up.

She said: "I was loving that he was going and saying you'll love it, you'll come back and you'll want to go again...Now I just wish I hadn't encouraged him to go." She said his possible whereabouts involve a hiking route - with a main road, bus stops, and cafes.

She added: “It’s a hiking route, there's people about, people must have seen him. And if people haven't seen him, someone must have taken him. It's over 48 hours now since he last had any contact with anybody. He's out there somewhere or somebody knows where he is. We just need to find my baby."

Jay, an apprentice bricklayer, had travelled to Tenerife to attend a music festival - NRG Tenerife Weekender - with his friends. A major search in the national park was launched since his disappearance and efforts to locate him have been widened to focus on the south of the island, the tourist resorts of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas, close to where Jay was staying.

He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers. He was also believed to be carrying a black bag.