Jay Slater search area left deserted as police suddenly end search for missing Brit
Spanish police looking for missing teen Jay Slater formally called off the search at 10am on Sunday morning and have already left the area.
Reporters arriving at 9am at the Hilda viewpoint on Sunday – which until then had been a hive of activity and a base for police and mountain search crews – found it eerily deserted.
The scene was a complete contrast to just 24 hours earlier when around 30 rescue workers and dozens of journalists converged on the area following an appeal for help from volunteers by Tenerife’s top cop Angel Sanz Coronado.
On Saturday officers were still claiming they would carry on the search and there were no plans to end it. However, in a sign that people were losing hope, just six volunteers turned up, including British TikToker and amateur mountaineer Paul Arnott, 29, who is helping the family.
Arnott, from Bedforshire, had dismissed Saturday’s search operation as “ridiculous”, “madness” and “a massive PR thing”. Speaking after it began around an hour later than advertised, Mr Arnott he had fumed: “I thought today was going to be so productive. I thought so many people were going to show up.
“I thought it was going to be really organised and I thought it was going to get out, not start the search when the hottest point of the day is.” Mr Arnott, who had paid £400 to fly from Britain to join the search, added: “I just thought it was going to be massive and it’s not. It’s absolute madness guys. This is ridiculous. This is mad.”
