Search for missing Jay Slater called off after two weeks

Joshua Stokes reports from Tenerife, as police call off the search for Jay Slater.

The search for Jay Slater in an area of Tenerife has been called off, police have said.

The teenager, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, has been missing in Tenerife ever since 17 June, when he vanished the morning after attending a music festival.

The Civil Guard had called for volunteers to join a "massive search" in the Masca area for Mr Slater on Saturday, which saw around 30 rescuers searching three separate locations linked to where Jay's phone last pinged.

A spokesperson for Tenerife police said: 'The search is now over but the investigation remains open.'

'I wish I'd said don't go', says mum of teen missing in Tenerife
A firefighter looks over the village of Masca where the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater continues. Credit: PA Images

Jay's loved ones say they will stay on the island 'until Jay is found'.

Family friend Rachel Hargreaves told ITV Granada Reports that leaving 'isn't even an option' and added: 'the investigation is still ongoing and we will carry on searching and working with the volunteers who have been searching tirelessly'.

When Jay Slater’s phone cut off, his last location showed as the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous area popular with hikers Credit: Alamy/PA

Yesterday, Brigadier Cipriano Martin, chief of the Guardia Civil’s mountain rescue team, said Mr Slater would not have travelled to “any area we don’t go to”.

Police also confirmed that the two people Jay last saw at the AirBnB in Masca were not relevant to their investigation.

ITV News reporter Joshua Stokes reporting on the 'massive search' on Saturday, before the search was scaled back.