MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish mountain rescue team in Tenerife found human remains in the area where British teenager Jay Slater went missing nearly a month ago, local police said on Monday, adding evidence strongly suggested the remains were his.
The Guardia Civil police said in a statement that he may have died due to a fall in the difficult-to-access mountainous area, but that an autopsy would confirm whether it was an accident.
A police spokesperson told Reuters by phone that the body was found on Monday morning by a Civil Guard mountain rescue group. The family has been notified and an autopsy will take place shortly, with the case then being transferred to a Tenerife court to determine the cause of death, the spokesperson said.
Slater, 19, went missing on June 17 and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park on the Canary Islands archipelago.
On June 30, Spanish police said they had ended a search for Slater that had involved dozens of officers, rescue workers, and volunteers using dogs, drones and a helicopter.
However, on Monday they said Guardia Civil officers had maintained a "continuous and discrete search" in the area for the whole 29 days.
Slater's mother, Debbie, said on July 13 the family had arranged for a team of experts with specialist dogs to fly in over the weekend from the Netherlands.
Five people are dead, police have said, and 20 injured.
"Jay is just a normal hardworking young lad from Lancashire who is very loved by all who know him," she wrote in a statement, asking people to pray for him and his family.
The family could not be immediately reached for comment.