Jay Slater missing in Tenerife: Watch heartbroken mum's emotional plea - "I just want my baby back"

Jay, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, was last heard from on Monday morning as he told a friend he planned to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey expected to take around 11 hours on foot.

Mum Debbie Duncan flew to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on Tuesday morning to search for him. In her first video interview, Jay’s mum told ITV News she feared her son had “been taken against his will”.

‘He’s out there somewhere, somebody knows where he is’

“It’s like a dream, like it’s not happening,” she said on Wednesday. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I just want my baby back”, said an emotional Debbie, fighting back tears. It’s over 48 hours now since he last had any contact with anybody. He’s out there somewhere, or somebody knows where he is. We just need to find my baby.”

Debbie said her son had gone to Tenerife to attend the NRG music festival on the island - his first holiday abroad. She said: “I wish I hadn’t encouraged him to go to this. I should have said: ‘Don’t go to Tenerife.’

“I just think he was probably still in high spirits, buzzing – he’s not known where he is. He’s not known the extent of the long journey that he went on to get up there. And he’s just thought: ‘I’m gonna walk.’ And that’s what apparently he said to the last person he contacted.”

Describing her son, Ms Duncan said: “He’s the life and soul, he’s a beautiful boy.” Speaking to the PA news agency, she said: “It’s just traumatic and it doesn’t feel real. It’s just awful, it’s horrendous.

“I think he’s been taken against his will with what’s been said, but it’s in the hands of the police. He’s just a great person who everyone wanted to be with. He’s good looking, he’s a popular boy.”

She added that the police leading the search had been “very good”. Jay’s friend Lucy – who had gone to the island with him to attend the NRG music festival – told the media he had gone to stay with people he had met on holiday after a night out.