Jay Slater's dad says 'I just want the boy back' as he joins the search

Jay Slater's dad has visited the area of Tenerife where teams are searching for his son as he said "I just want the boy back".

Jay, 19, hasn't been heard from for almost a week having gone missing on Monday morning. He last spoke to his friend Lucy at around 8.50am when he said he was planning on walking the 11 hours back to their apartment.

Jay's mum Debbie, from Oswaldtwistle, flew to Tenerife on Tuesday with her eldest son Zak and they have since been joined by Jay's dad Warren.

READ MORE:

• Ex-pat says 'it would be easy to get lost' in area of Tenerife where Jay Slater went missing

• Witness reports possible sighting of Jay Slater 'sat on bench with two men'

Warren's visit to the search was the first time Jay’s family members had felt able to visit the area. Warren and Zak, 24, wrapped their arms around each other in solidarity while looking out onto the search, the Mirror reports.

Debbie has admitted that she's "not slept" since flying out to the Canary Islands.

She said: “My boy might be just up there somewhere. We’re all devastated. He’s just a normal boy from a little town in Lancashire. These things don’t happen.

“I was in touch with him while he is in Tenerife. He was just holidaying away, he’d saved up and was looking forward to it.

“I’ve not slept for five days. My brain isn’t functioning well and I’m tired and exhausted.”

Debbie, 55, also revealed that a person now says that they saw her son walking down a road with two other men last Monday evening. It was that morning that he had last been seen as he enquired about getting a bus back to the south of Tenerife where he was staying with friends.

"Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench," she reportedly said. "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.

"They said it was about 6pm which is ten hours after he was seen by the lady in the village. But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?"