Mom of missing teen wishes she 'hadn't encouraged' holiday in search for her 'baby'

The search and rescue operation for a teenager missing in Tenerife has entered its fourth day. Jay Slater, aged 19 from Lancashire, UK, was last heard from on Monday . He had travelled to the Canary island for the NRG Weekender music festival and had told a friend he planned to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey expected to take around 11 hours on foot.

His friend Lucy, who had gone to the island with him for the festival, said she received a concerning phone call from him at around 8.15am on Monday, with Jay saying he missed the bus and was trying to walk back, although he had said he was lost, needed a drink of water and had only 1% battery on his phone.

The teenager's phone then cut off, with his last location showing as the Rural de Teno park - a mountainous area popular with hikers. The closest town is Santiago del Teide. He had been staying on the south of the island in an apartment with friends.

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Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, flew to Tenerife on Tuesday morning to join the search for him. She told how her son had been saving up and looking forward to the trip, which was his first without his parents. She told UK TV channel ITV: "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 believes that someone may have taken Jay pointing to the fact that "there is a main road, there's bus stops there, there's cafes, 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."

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

The search, involving the Guardia Civil with agents from the Special Mountain Intervention Rescue Group (GREIM), began in the Rural Teno Park, but since then it has been extended to tourist areas near to where he was staying including Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas.

In order to search the barren landscape around his last known location, drones and police search dogs have been deployed in the Masca area, in the municipality of Buenavista del Norte, as confirmed by sources from the Guard Civil to Europa Press.

A British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities."