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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lydia Chantler-Hicks,Sami Quadri and William Mata

Jay Slater search: Missing British teen captured dancing in nightclub video hours before vanishing

New footage shows missing British teenager Jay Slater dancing shirtless in a Tenerife nightclub hours before his disappearance.

The 19-year-old was captured on video at approximately 1am last Monday, marking one of the last known sightings before he vanished around 8.50am the same day.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, disappeared while attempting a long walk back to his accommodation while on holiday with two friends.

Spanish authorities continue their search for the young Brit, now missing for a week. The newly surfaced clip, shared on TikTok, could provide investigators with fresh leads in their efforts to locate him.

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Tenerife police have issued an urgent appeal for information as fears mount for the missing British teenager's safety.

He is seen in one corner of the shot dancing with his shirt off at the NRG music festival, MailOnline reported.

Mr Slater attended the three-day NRG music festival on the island with his friends before his disappearance.

The apprentice bricklayer understood to have left the festival on Sunday with two men he met at the event, returning to where they were staying in a remote, mountainous area of Tenerife.

He was last heard from around 8.30am on Monday, when he frantically called his friend Lucy Law, saying he was lost after leaving the villa and trying to walk back to his own accommodation, having missed a bus.

He said he had “cut his leg on a cactus and had no idea where he was”, and that he needed water.

The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.

A firefighter looks over the village of Masca, Tenerife, as the search for Jay Slater continued on Saturday (James Manning/PA Wire)

As the sixth day of the search for Mr Slater drew to a close without success on Saturday night, Ms Duncan said: “I’ve not slept, I’m exhausted. It’s been awful. I can’t give up on him, I just can’t.”

Asked how his family was coping with the situation, Ms Duncan said on Saturday night: “We’re not. I’m not coping very well at all.”

Lancashire Constabulary said it had made “an offer of support to the Guardia Civil to see if they need any additional resources”, which was rejected by Spanish authorities.

Questioned on whether Spanish police should have accepted help from the UK force, Ms Duncan said: “I believe they said they’ve got enough resources and they don’t need the help from English police.

“I don’t know if they find it an insult – I really don’t know.”

Missing Jay Slater, 19 (Supplied)

Asked if her head was spinning from the past few days, she said: “It is, it is.

“People say: ‘Yeah, I understand’ – no, you don’t, you don’t understand.”

The search parties looking for Mr Slater seemed noticeably smaller on Saturday compared to other days – with only a handful of emergency workers visible in Masca and the surrounding areas.

Firefighters appeared to conduct the majority of the latest searches, as rescue teams, alongside sniffer dogs, set off on a steep gravel track at Rural de Teno Park in the morning.

But Ms Duncan told the Guardian she felt the police response had been “stepped up”.

She said she feared “something untoward” had happened to her son.

Members of the Guardia Civil near the village of Masca, Tenerife, on Saturday (PA Wire)

Speaking to MailOnline, she revealed there had been new information about a potential sighting of Mr Slater.

She said: “Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench.

“He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church. This guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it. We don't know if it was Jay for sure, but it's a start.”

She said the sighting allegedly came at 6pm - around 10 hours after Mr Slater was last seen.

“But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?” she added.“All I know is that I am going to stay here for as long as it takes, I'm not going home unless it's with Jay. I'm not going anywhere until they find him.”

Rescue teams, alongside sniffer dogs, set off on a steep gravel track at Rural de Teno Park on the south of the island on Saturday morning.

A member of the search team with a search dog, pictured on Saturday (James Manning/PA Wire)

As the NRG music festival came to a close on Sunday night, Mr Slater left his friends and is believed to have gone home with people he met at the festival, who were staying in an apartment “miles away from civilisation and in a very secluded location”.

He was last heard from on Monday morning, when he rang his friend Lucy Law saying he was lost, after missing a bus and attempting to walk back to where they were staying in the south of hte island.

He said he needed water, and had “cut his leg” on a cactus.

Ms Law said Mr Slater said during the frantic call that he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on one per cent”.

Dozens of police, mountain rescuers and firefighters have been search for Mr Slater, with sniffer dogs, drones and a helicopter joining the operation on Wednesday.

Search teams were seen removing bags of rubbish from the area on Thursday, the BBC reported, as they tried to establish his whereabouts.

"Given the information we have, we do not rule out any hypothesis," a spokesperson for the emergency services said on Thursday.

The investigation showed the teenager was probably somewhere in the wild, forested area located above the island's shore, she said.

In a Facebook post, administrator of the “Jay Slater Missing” page, Rachel Louise Harg said on Friday family and friends of Mr Slater were in a “living nightmare”.

“Struggling to find words at this time but all I can say is we are looking still and everyone is doing all they can,” she wrote.

“We are drained beyond words – I just can’t say no more, I wish I could.

“I wish this would end now, this living nightmare. Searches are ongoing and we remain positive.”

A rescue officer told news agency Reuters a relative received a message from Mr Slater before he went missing saying he had suffered a leg injury.

Footage has emerged online of Mr Slater at a rave at NRG music festival, in the hours before he went missing.

The clip - the last known video of the missing teen - shows him making his way through the crowd at the packed event at a Tenerife nightclub, with sunglasses perched on his forehead.

A helicopter searching for Mr Slater on Thursday (REUTERS/Borja Suarez)

Mr Slater is understood to have posted a photo on Snapchat showing himself at a villa in north Tenerife, shortly before his phone ran out of battery on Monday morning.

His friend Ms Law tracked down the villa and reportedly spoke to the two men he had been there with, the Times reported.

She said the men told her Mr Slater had gone for a cigarette before returning and said he wanted to go home. He reportedly turned down the men’s offers to drive him home later that morning, saying he would instead walk.

She added there were “so many questions that are unanswered”.

She said the two men Mr Slater was with, who are understood to be British, have now left Tenerife, adding she would like them to be questioned by police in the UK.

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

Dozens of Mr Slater’s relatives and friends have flown to Tenerife to join the search, the Times reports.

A church in Mr Slater’s hometown has held a “service of hope” for the teen, who was on his first holiday alone when he went missing.

His friends, family and members of the local community gathered there wearing blue ribbons to show their support, praying for his safe return and leaving messages to him.

One long-time friend who was there told Sky News Mr Slater was well-known in Oswaldtwistle and described him as “the life and soul of the party”. "Everywhere you see him he's just constantly got a smile on his face,” they added. “He's always just a happy chap.

Emergency workers near the village of Masca, Tenerife, where the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, continued on Friday (James Manning/PA Wire)

“He's just constantly happy wherever you see him, no matter what. He's just always got a smile on his face. Hopefully, someone somewhere knows something and hopefully he can get found."

Mr Slater was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers and a black bag.

Ms Duncan said searching for her son was “an absolute living nightmare”.

She told ITV News: “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I just want my baby back...It’s a massive area up there. He’s out there somewhere or somebody knows where he is.”

She added: “I wish I hadn’t encouraged him to go to this. I should have said: ‘Don’t go to Tenerife’.

“I just think he was probably still in high spirits, buzzing – he’s not known where he is.

“He’s not known the extent of the long journey that he went on to get up there.

“And he’s just thought: ‘I’m gonna walk’. And that’s what apparently he said to the last person he contacted.”

Describing her son, Ms Duncan said: “He’s the life and soul, he’s a beautiful boy.”

A fundraising appeal set up by Ms Law to help search for Mr Slater has raised over £24,000.

The Spanish Civil Guard told the Times it is “doing everything possible” to find him.

Lancashire police said its officers were supporting Mr Slater’s family, and were in touch with the British consulate in Tenerife.

A 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.”

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