Jay Slater search team reveals ‘three key areas’ in Tenerife hunt

A member of the search and rescue team has revealed that the hunt for missing Jay Slater is focusing on three specific areas. Search conditions are challenging due to mountainous terrain and extreme weather – but the operation has been scaled back.

For the seventh day, officers are searching north-west Tenerife tirelessly for the 19-year-old, who has not been heard from since last Monday morning.

Over the course of the week, the operation focused on three distinct areas of the Parque Rural de Teno nature reserve, near an Airbnb where Jay was last seen trying to return to southern Tenerife, where he was on holiday.

Read more: Jay’s mom makes a five-word request

Jay attended an NRG music event and drove off with two men, spending the night at an Airbnb in Masca. The building owner was the last person to see him when he asked about the next bus departure.

Search and rescue workers, equipped with hard hats and other specialized mountain equipment, focused their efforts on the Masca Gorge, La Vica and Las Portelas, as well as the surrounding area of ​​Masca, the Mirror reports.

A search and rescue worker spoke to the Mirror about ongoing efforts to find a missing hiker, saying: “We are concentrating our search in three ravines, covering an area of ​​at least 30 square kilometres. We still have hope that he is alive – until the last moment when the last hope we have been up and down, but, so far, we have not found anything almost reaches the ravine, on the high side, without finding anything.”

“Now the second part was this trail that goes up and almost reaches Las Portelas (hills), the high part of the Las Portelas trail, and nothing was found either. We went to the ravine to see where he supposedly took his last selfie. and down from there.”

The worker expressed his frustration, adding: “The truth is that we feel a little frustrated because we can’t find it. It’s so big here that it’s very difficult to search in such a steep area. But we’re doing our best.”

He also mentioned the deployment of additional resources: “We’re expecting this afternoon for the drone units to come over the area one more time, and the search dogs again. It is a very difficult area to search. Just because it’s so steep.”