A missing persons expert has outlined a clear direction they believe police should be following after teenagerJay Slater went missing in Tenerife earlier this week.

Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday as he told a friend he planned to walk to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey expected to take around 11 hours on foot.

He told friends Lucy Law that his phone was on one per cent charge, he was lost and said that he needed some water.

Speaking to GB News former Head of Lambeth Missing Persons Unit, Mike Neville explained that Spanish police should be "reliant on humans and dogs".

He said: "This area of Tenerife is is quite wooded. There are so many places that somebody could have laid down to rest or take shelter, and it's not so visible from the air.

"So whilst the Spanish police are making use of helicopters and drones, they're really reliant on humans. Either the police officers, volunteers or park rangers and dogs to try and locate Jay Slater, we can only hope that he is alive and he's okay."

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GB News host Anne Diamond said: "There's a lot we're not being told, which I suppose you can understand at the moment.

"But for instance, the two British men he was seen with at one point were staying in a bed and breakfast type place or rented accommodation, and the press and the police have already spoken to the landlady there. So there must be things that we're not being told that they're also looking into."

He responded: "There's all sorts of speculation on on social media and matters that have been reported in the press about Jay's past and these things will be being looked into.

"There's been another possible sighting several hours later that his mum's highlighted. But the Spanish police do seem to be focusing on this theory that he's got lost himself.

"They're basing it on the idea that he rang up and said that he was lost. So they seem to be discounting any elements of criminality or some kind of kidnap, and they're really focusing on this area of the park."

His friend Lucy said that Slater had gone to stay with people he had met on holiday while on a night out.

She said she received a call from the 19-year-old at around 8.15 am on Monday after he missed the bus and was trying to walk back.

His last location is shown as the Rural de Reno park, a mountainous area popular with hikers.

Yesterday, Slater's mother said that the search had been "stepped up" as Spanish police search for her missing son.

Debbie Duncan told the Guardian she spent eight hours in a police station on Friday as police outlined their detailed plans to search for the missing apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire. “I think it’s been stepped up,” she said, which she described as “too right”.