Jay Slater missing latest: Tenerife teen ‘asked for bus times’ just before he vanished

British police have offered to assist Spanish authorities in searching for missing teenager Jay Slater after he vanished in Tenerife.

Lancashire Police said it had “made an offer of support” to Spain’s Guardia Civil to provide additional resources for the ongoing search.

A spokesperson told The Independent: “While this case falls outside the jurisdiction of UK policing, we have made an offer of support to the Guardia Civil to see if they need any additional resources.

“They have confirmed that at this time they are satisfied that they have the resources they need, but that offer remains open and they will contact us should that position change.”

Missing British teenager Jay Slater asked a cafe owner for bus times just moments before he vanished in a remote part of a Spanish island.

Mr Slater, 19, asked witness Ofelia Medina Hernandez twice what time the bus arrived in Buenavista Del Norte, Tenerife, at around 8am on Monday.

He was last heard from on Monday morning, when he phoned his friend Lucy Law at 8.15am to say that he was lost, dehydrated and had 1 per cent phone battery after attending a music festival.

Ms Hernandez told Sky News: “I saw the boy in the morning, at around 8am. He asked twice what time the bus came. I told him ‘at 10 o’clock’. He came back and asked me again, and I told him again – at 10 o’clock.

After meeting two men, who have been described as British, during the festival, Mr Slater decided to return to their AirBnb while his friends went home.

Little is known about them, and they have since flown back to the UK after being questioned briefly by Spanish police.

In the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, his friend Ms Law tracked them down at their AirBnb after spending time matching images from Mr Slater’s Snapchat to the location.

She told MailOnline: “They seemed startled and surprised that I had found them, and I asked them where Jay was.

“They said he had gone out to try and look for cigarettes and then come back and said he was leaving to try and get a bus back into town.

“They just seemed shocked that I had managed to find them and I know the police have spoken to them but I’ve since found out they have left the country. They need to be spoken to properly.”

Despite being pointed towards a bus stop, Mr Slater decided against waiting another two hours for a bus to take him into town.

Speaking to MailOnline, Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she had seen the teenager standing by the bus stop and had asked about buses back to Los Cristianos.

She said: “I held up my fingers on my hands to say 10am as he didn’t understand me then I went home briefly before driving up the mountain to Buenavista del Norte, but this time I saw him walking on the road out of the village.

“It was no more than ten or fifteen minutes after I had spoken to him and he was about a kilometre from the house. I drove past him and that’s the last I saw him.”

Given that there is a main road nearby, questions have been raised as to why Mr Slater appears to have wandered into the wilderness. His friend Ms Law said: “What I don’t understand is if he did walk down then why wasn’t he seen by anyone? x

“It’s a busy time of day, the place is full of hikers and holidaymakers, he could have asked them for help or stopped somewhere but no one has seen him at all.”

In his last Snapchat post at 7.30am, Mr Slater tagged Parque Rural de Teno Buenavista del Norte, an area to the north of the island, known for its rugged and sparse terrain.

He is believed to have travelled to the area during the early hours of Monday morning with two new acquaintances, without realising the distance from his apartment in the tourist area of Los Cristianos.

Around an hour later, he phoned his friend Lucy to tell her he had missed his bus, and was planning to make the 11-hour walk.

He told her he had cut his leg on a cactus, was unsure of his location and had barely any phone battery to use a maps app to make his way back.

Search teams are currently scouring the area, with police deploying helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs to help with the search.

The search party hunting for British teenager Jay Slater, who went missing during a holiday in Tenerife, has focused its efforts on a ravine near to where he was last heard from.

Search and rescue personnel carefully combed through dead palm trees covering a river at the bottom of the hillside near to a property he had reportedly been driven to.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.

He had attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance.