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British teen, who went missing 6 years ago in Spain, found in France. Who is Alex Batty?
Alex Batty, 17, was spotted by a delivery driver on the side of a road in France who drove him to a police station.
A British teenager, who had gone missing six years ago during a family holiday in Spain, has been found in southwestern France on Thursday, reports claimed.
According to BFMTV, 17-year-old Alex Batty was spotted by a delivery driver on the side of a road, who drove him to a police station. Batty disappeared after going on holiday with his mother and grandfather in Spain in 2017.
The duo do not have parental guardianship of him. They have not been located and remain wanted in connection with his disappearance, reported the BBC.
The delivery driver, Fabien Accidini, said he saw the teenager walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
"He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn't say where," Accidini said. “I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for.”
Batty then used the driver's Facebook account to contact his grandmother in the UK, according to the BBC.
He wrote: "Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home."
His grandmother and legal guardian, Susan Caruana, told The Sun that Batty is well. "I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well," she said. “It is such a shock.”
In 2018, Caruana told the BBC that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco. She added that the two were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Batty to go to school.
Meanwhile, the Greater Manchester Police said officers from Batty's hometown of Oldham are in contact with French authorities to establish the authenticity of the reports.
“This is a complex and long-running investigation, and we need to make further enquiries as well as putting appropriate safeguarding measures in place,” the force said, according to AP.
