Spanish police have confirmed that sniffer dogs searching for missing teenager Jay Slater have not been given a piece of the 19-year-old’s clothing from which to pick up the scent.
Slater flew from Lancashire to the Canary Islands for a music festival but disappeared after he went to stay with people he met during a night out on June 16.
During his final call to his friend Lucy Law at 8am local time last Monday, the 19-year-old said his phone had only one per cent battery, he was thirsty and he did not know where he was.
His last location showed he was in the Rural de Teno Park - an area popular among hikers. He has not been seen since and the search has entered its tenth day.
Spanish police have confirmed that sniffer dogs searching for missing teenager Jay Slater have not been given a piece of the 19-year-old’s clothingPA/FacebookEarlier this week, two extra dogs and their handlers were flown in from Spain to join in with the search of the “very difficult” terrain.
Tenerife police said: “The Civil Guard continues with the search device for the young British man who disappeared in the Masca neighbourhood, belonging to the municipality of Buenavista del Norte (Tenerife), in which different units of the Civil Guard participate.
“In addition, today several Canine Guides of the Civil Guard dispatched from Madrid with their canine agents specialised in the search for people on large areas of land, belonging to the Cynological Service of the Civil Guard.”
One of the dogs, a four-year-old Belgian shepherd from the Madrid dog unit, was spotted sniffing between cacti and mountain shrubs on a hiking trail which runs towards the sea.
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Search teams have been looking for British teen Jay Slater for over a weekPAOfficers have said that the dogs have not been given pieces of Slater’s clothing to assist with the search.
However, cadaver dogs are trained to pick up the scent of human remains without the need for prompts, The Times has reported.
Speaking to GB News, journalist Gerard Couzens said that the use of the dogs shows that the police do not publicly intend to bring an end to the search.
He said: “There will obviously come a time when an end is brought to this search, but publicly, the police are not talking about an end date.
“Sniffer dogs from Madrid have been brought in, so publicly at least, police are not saying that they are even considering bringing an end to this search or scaling it down.
Last known location of Jay SlaterPA“But obviously the family are aware that there is a good chance that if Jay is found, he's sadly not going to be found alive.”
Locals have called the 19-year-old’s disappearance “strange” and questioned what he was “doing in the mountains at 8am in the morning”, according to a Travel Tenerife tour guide.
Tour guide Angel, who drives up to the Masca ravine most days visitors, said: “Sometimes people disappear for one day, two days, there’s drinking and drugs, if they’re partying for example, but up here, nothing like this has happened before.
“For many days, lost in the middle of the mountains.. no, never, never.
“People are asking what was he doing in the mountains at 8am in the morning? It’s so strange after the disco you wouldn’t finish a party in the mountains.
"It’s very dangerous. Masca is very famous, people go hiking every day and police have to rescue people, but nobody has disappeared up here in the north.”
