'I'm All Alone': Forest Boy's First Words

The first words of an English-speaking teenager who claims he has been living rough in a German forest have been revealed.

The youth, who is apparently 17, wandered into Berlin's City Hall and declared: "I'm all alone in the world."

According to The Daily Telegraph, baffled workers heard him insist: "I don't know who I am. Please help me."

Police are still working to identify the teenager, who walked in off the street on September 5.

He was carrying a tent, a sleeping bag and a backpack and claimed he did not know who he was or his background.

The boy, who is in good health, called himself Ray and spoke in fluent English with only a few words of German.

He said he had walked from the forest, where he had been living with his father for the last five years.

According to his story, his father was killed in a fall some two weeks ago.

He has claimed he buried the body in a shallow grave and covered it with stones before walking to civilisation.

He said he walked north, using a compass, to reach Berlin but could not identify the woods he had lived in.

The father and son had apparently been living rough since the boy's mother died in a car crash.

The youth is in the care of social services as authorities try to solve the riddle of his identity.

A Europe-wide appeal via Interpol has been made to help the investigation.

Police spokesman Klaus Schubert said: "We have contacted police departments in other countries to tell us if they have cases of missing young men so we can compare the dates."

Mr Schubert said the youth is being looked after by staff from the Youth Welfare Office, adding: "He is OK, his constitution is good.

"He said he was living in the woods but there are a lot of woods. He said he buried his father but he cannot describe where it was.

"He said it was a few days south of Berlin - it could be anywhere. It is very difficult to find this sort of place.

"It may be that he has a trauma or something awful that happened to him so we must be careful."

The Foreign Office in London has said it is aware of the reports and is looking into them.

In 2005, the Piano Man was found wandering through the streets of Sheerness, Kent.

For months he remained uncommunicative except for showing his accomplished pianist skills.

He was eventually identified as 20-year-old Andreas Grassl from Germany.