A British adolescent, who went missing six years ago during a family vacation in Spain at the age of 11, was recently located in southwestern France on Thursday, according to reports.
The teenager, now 17 and identified as Alex Batty, was reportedly discovered by a delivery driver along a roadside, who subsequently transported him to a nearby police station.
Batty disappeared in 2017 while vacationing with his mother and grandfather in Spain, both of whom have not been found since. They lack legal guardianship over Batty, and they are sought in connection with his disappearance, as per BBC reports.
The delivery driver, Fabien Accidini, reported observing 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.”
According to the BBC, Batty then used the driver’s Facebook account to reach out to his grandmother in the UK.
He messaged: “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, informed The Sun that Batty is in good health. “I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well,” she said. “It is such a shock.”
Six years ago, in 2018, Caruana told the BBC that she believed Alex’s grandfather David Batty and mother Melanie Batty had taken him to live in a spiritual community in Morocco. She added that they did not want Batty to attend school and were seeking an alternative lifestyle.
Meanwhile, the Greater Manchester Police stated that officers from Batty’s hometown of Oldham are in contact with French authorities to verify 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.
