Oldham teenager Alex Batty stayed in French guesthouse with his grandfather

Video report by ITV Granada Reports correspondent Tim Scott

The owner of a French guesthouse where Alex Batty lived for more than two years has confirmed his grandfather is still alive.

Ingrid Beauve, along with her husband, housed Alex and his grandfather in exchange for him doing chores in their garden and kitchen.

Speaking to ITV News, Ingrid explained how her family went to Belgium on 1 December, and returned to find both Alex and his grandfather had left the guesthouse.

She said: "When I came back there was no one. I mean, everyone had left."

While Alex initially came to work for Ingrid, he quickly became part of the family.

Ingrid said: "I remember I took a holiday because I had my nephews and my daughter and my son.

"And so we included Zach in our program and we did a lot of activities together.

"It was really nice, you know, it was really he was really enjoying himself.

"And for me it was very good. I was very happy to see him that way."

As well as taking Alex on family holiday's, Ingrid encouraged him to learn French.

She said: "I told him, okay, you are now in France so take advantage of it and learn French.

"I told him many times, clever people speak languages, so you have to speak languages."

Ms Beauve said Alex had wanted to “return to the UK” and find identity documents to enable him to start school.

Alex disappeared in 2017 aged 11 after his mother, who was not his legal guardian, took him on a pre-arranged trip to Spain with his grandfather.

He is now back in Greater Manchester after he was discovered walking across the Pyrenees.

The teenager said he had been hiking in the mountains for more than four days in an attempt to return to England.

The international police organisation Interpol are reported to be looking for Alex's mum.

Meanwhile Greater Manchester Police is deciding if there should be a criminal investigation.