Jay Slater search latest as teams looking for teen say they 'still have hope'

Specialist teams in the search for missing teenager Jay Slater say they ‘still have hope’ he will be found alive as day 5 comes to a close. At the search base, Civil Defence teams revealed that so far, they have ‘found nothing’ as they detailed on which areas are being searched in fresh update.

A huge search is underway in the ‘dangerous’ Tenerife mountains for the 19-year-old, from Lancashire, has not been seen or heard from since Monday morning (June 17). He had stayed in an Airbnb with two men he met after partying at the NRG festival on Sunday night.

Jay is understood to have then left the holiday cottage on Monday morning on foot and alone. He called his friend Lucy to say his phone was on just 1 per cent battery and that he needed a drink. The last mobile phone data pinged in a remote mountainous area around half a mile further north from the small village of Masca.

READ MORE: Missing Jay Slater live updates as new statement issued in desperate search for teen

During the fifth day of the search, which has involved Civil Guard officers, mountain rescue teams and police drones and helicopters all searching for the Brit, Civil Defence officers at the search base told the Manchester Evening News that the vast area, split up into three different ravines, is around 30km wide.

One member of the team shared how they are currently carrying out searches in three different areas - the Masca Gorge, La Vica, and Las Portelas, as well as the surrounding Masca area. Aside from one windy and challenging main road through Masca, there are very few footpaths, with miles of challenging and dangerous terrain.

A member of the specialist search team confirmed drones and police dogs had not been deployed on Friday, therefore making the already challenging search even more difficult. A member of the Civil Defence search team said: "We still have hope that he's alive, up until the last moment when the last hope is lost.

"The truth is that we feel a bit frustrated because we can't find him. It's so big [here] that it's very difficult to search in such a steep area. But we're doing everything we can. We haven't found anything, we have combed this entire trail, we've been up and down but, until now, nothing.

Get all the latest and breaking news in Yorkshire by signing up to our newsletter here.

"This morning we have concentrated on searching from down below, up Masca, along the path until it almost reaches the ravine, at the high part, without finding anything. Now the second part has been this path that goes up and almost reaches Las Portelas, the high part of Las Portelas trail and nothing was found either.

"We've been to the ravine to see where he supposedly took his last selfie and downward from there. We're waiting this afternoon for the drone units to come one more time to do a flight over the area, and the search dogs again too. Very difficult... it's a very difficult area to search. Just because it's so steep.

"Yesterday there were 25 volunteers, five dogs between them, and four drones from volunteers too, besides the professional ones. We are concentrating our search in 3 ravines, over an area of at least 30 square kilometres."