Jay Slater: Body found in Tenerife is British teenager, court says

The body found by rescue workers in Tenerife is British teenager Jay Slater, a court spokesperson has said.

The court spokesperson in Tenerife said fingerprints examined in a post-mortem had confirmed the body is that of the British teenager.

The multiple injuries suffered were compatible with a fall from a cliff, the spokesperson added.

Paying tribute to Mr Slater, his mother Debbie Duncan - who flew to Tenerife to search for him - said: "I just can't believe this could happen to my beautiful boy. Our hearts are broken."

"I just can't believe it," Ms Duncan said on hearing the news while she was at the British Embassy waiting for an update.

"Now it's come - the worst news," she said.

Spanish police said in a statement on Monday that the Civil Guard's mountain rescue group had located the "lifeless body of a young man in the Masca area after 29 days of constant search".

LBT Global - a charity which supports the families of missing persons and has been working with the Slater family - said the body was found with the 19-year-old's possessions and clothes and is understood to have been close to the last known location of his mobile phone.

On Tuesday, rescue teams continued to search the remote area where the possessions were found.

They said they are continuing their work to ensure that nothing is missed in the thick undergrowth that covers the area near the village of Masca.

One local questioned how Mr Slater would have reached such a place, telling Sky News: "The spot where they found him shows he had gone a long way into the ravine."

While another said the location is "extremely difficult" to navigate on foot.

The teenager was last heard from on the morning of 17 June after setting off to walk from a northern area of the island back to his holiday accommodation in the south - a journey of about 11 hours.

At 8.30am on 17 June he called his friend Lucy Law, telling her he had missed a bus, his phone battery was on 1%, and he had cut his leg on a cactus.

He had flown out to the Spanish island with friends four days before to attend a music festival at Papagayo nightclub in the southern resort of Playa de las Americas.

Read more:Jay Slater friend Lucy Law makes emotional statement'You should be ashamed': Anger in Jay Slater groupsA timeline of Jay Slater's disappearance

The day before his body was discovered, Mr Slater's mother, Debbie Duncan, described her son as a "loving son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend to so many".

She also took aim at what she referred to as "very distressing" online comments and conspiracy theories that have spiralled out of control since the teenager's disappearance.