A friend of Mr Slater said he told her over the phone on Monday morning that he had missed a bus trying to get back to his accommodation and planned to walk instead – a journey that would take 11 hours.
By Tom Gillespie, News reporter @TomGillespie1
Photographs show the Tenerife property where British teenager Jay Slater is believed to have been last seen before he went missing on Monday.
A Snapchat video shared by the 19-year-old on Sunday night appears to show the property he visited in the northwestern mountain village of Masca after attending the NRG music festival.
Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn in Lancashire, was holidaying with friends on the island before he went missing.
His friend Lucy Law told Wednesday’s UK Tonight programme on Sky News that she spoke to Mr Slater on the phone at about 8.15am local time on Monday.
During the short phone call, he told her he had missed a bus trying to get back to his holiday accommodation so was attempting to walk instead – a journey that would take 11 hours.
Missing British teen’s friend speaks to Sky News
She said he told her he had “cut his leg on a cactus“, didn’t know where he was and his mobile phone battery was down to 1%.
Ms Law also said Mr Slater told her he “needed a drink”.
He was able to send her his last live location which showed as the Rural de Teno Park – a mountainous area popular with hikers – before his phone cut out.
Ms Law said Mr Slater, an apprentice bricklayer, is “not a stupid boy” and would have flagged down any passing car or spoken to a passerby.
Soon after Mr Slater went missing, an American woman offered to drive Ms Law up into the mountains.
There was “literally no sign of him anywhere”, she said. “We drove around all day.”
Ms Law added that they “managed to find the house” where Mr Slater was last seen.
She continued: “I knocked on the door and there were two people there.”
They told Ms Law that Mr Slater had gone out for a cigarette before going back in and saying he wanted to go home.
“They told me he’d spoken to the next door neighbours and they’d told him there was a bus every 10 minutes back down to Los Cristianos.
“The bus stop was right next to the house. So obviously if he’d gone to get the bus he wouldn’t have got lost because it [the stop] was visible from the front door.”
The teenager was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and was without food and water, she added.
“It’s very warm in the day and very cold at night,” Ms Law said.
“So in the day he’s going to be really warm without a drink, and then at night he’s going to be very cold without any suitable clothing.”
Read more:
Today is a ‘key day’ in search – local journalist says
Former Coronation Street star prays for his safe return
Earlier, she told the Manchester Evening News someone Mr Slater had met on the night out had driven him back to their apartment in a hire car without him realising how far away it was.
“He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there,” she told the newspaper.
‘A living nightmare’
Mr Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan, who flew to the island and has joined mountain rescuers and the local civil guard in the search for her son, has called his disappearance “an absolute living nightmare”.
Search teams refocused their efforts on Thursday in the north of Tenerife, where Rural de Teno Park is located, after discounting a potential lead in the south of the island, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, a Tenerife-based journalist said today is a “key day” in the search for Mr Slater.
Clio O’Flynn told Sky News: “If he’s taken shelter, the hope is he’s waiting for help to come along,”
She added: “The problem will be ‘does he have a phone signal? Will people be able to locate him? Can he hear their cries?'”
Ms O’Flynn said the search had been “very intense” with teams using all the resources at their disposal, including “mountain specialists, search dogs, drones and helicopters” and are “taking suggestions from his family, so it’s very coordinated”.
The area where he is believed to have gone missing is a “dry, arid, part of the island”, and, given its volcanic origins, has “ravines and gullies”, Ms O’Flynn said.
She warned there are “no lakes, rivers or streams, so it would be quite hard for him to access fresh water”.
Temperatures have been about 26C (79F), she said, but warned that “if you’re lost, 25C is very hot”.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The Spanish Civil Guard told UK media they are “doing everything possible” to find Mr Slater.